Tigers do enough for victory
by JP Lonergan, 12 October 2008
Leicester Tigers have kicked off their Heineken Cup season with a hard-fought 12-6 victory over The Ospreys at Welford Road on Sunday afternoon.
Toby Flood kicked over four first-half penalties for The Tigers and in the end those scores were enough to sink a brave Ospreys challenge in what was a fiercely-contested Pool 3 encounter. The Welsh side go away with one point after two second-half penalty misses from James Hook. Leicester go level with Perpigan on four.
In a frantic start, Leicester looked to bombard their guests with Aaron Mauger and Flood seeking to bomb forward at every opportunity. They were broken down a couple of times but one of their attacks soon led to The Ospreys conceding a penalty right under the posts.
Dan Hipkiss was stopped before Martin Corry found Mauger and, after he was impeded, Flood kicked over. Flood had appeared to have played a forward pass earlier in the move, but it went unpunished as Heyneke Meyer’s side took a lead they wouold never relinquish.
The Ospreys' first real attack was broken down when Hipkiss stopped Shane Williams in his tracks as he looked to power towards the line on the right, but on the 20-minute mark they found their deficit doubled when Flood hit a superb penalty over from long range.
Two from two quickly became three from three as Flood kicked over from right on the sideline and The Ospreys were almost caught even more when Johne Murphy sliced through their defence, the Welsh side lucky that with both Geordan Murphy and Matt Smith raiding down the right, the man in possession’s attempted pass was wayward.
The Welsh side’s own attempts at getting forward were not really getting anywhere as the half wore on, but with the talent in their side and with Johne Murphy playing another poor pass on a Leicester break, they were not out of the game at 9-0.
Which is why it must have been so frustrating for Sean Holley when an unnecessary offside allowed Flood to make it 12-0 with his fourth successful penalty.
The Ospreys continued to struggle to break through at the other end as Leicester defended stoutly, but just before the break Shane Williams decided enough was enough and went for a drop goal that the TV official confirmed had bounced behind off the post.
That left the gap at nine points at the interval with the first quarter of an hour of the second period seeing little change as both sides battled for ground and possession and The Ospreys failed to make any real headway.
However, they were then awarded two penalties within two minutes, and with 22 minutes remaining Hook was relived to kick over the second one after his first sailed to the right of the posts.
Harry Ellis attempted a drop goal that would have put Leicester’s lead back at nine but his effort was off target. Still, the battling nature they began to adapt – -captured in particular by replacement winger Alesani Tuilagi and the excellent Tom Croft - was emphasising a more workmanlike showing in the second half from The Tigers as the gaps that they had been exposing in the first half had disappeared.
Hook was gifted a chance to reduce the arrears to nine. But from a long way out – but straight in line – he missed the target again, crucially at a time where three points would really have left the game in the melting pot.
Still there was time for The Ospreys as Tommy Bowe kicked past everyone and raced for the line only to be prevented at the last by Ireland colleague Geordan Murphy.
The Welsh side were then awarded a scrum but when Filo Tiatia lost control of the ball the home side were able to clear and with that went The Osprey’s last chance of sneaking it.
Leicester Tigers: G Murphy; J Murphy, D Hipkiss, A Mauger, M Smith; T Flood, H Ellis; M Ayerza, B Kayser, J White, M Corry (capt), B Kay, T Croft, B Woods, J Crane.
Replacements: G Chuter, D Cole, R Blaze, M Wentzel, J Dupuy, D Hougaard, A Tuilagi.
Ospreys: L Byrne; N Walker, T Bowe, A Bishop, S Williams; J Hook, R Wells; P James, R Hibbard, A Jones, A Jones, I Evans, J Thomas, M Holah, R Jones (capt).
Replacements: H Bennett, D Jones, I Gough, F Tiatia, T Smith, R Webb, D Biggar.
