Andy Goode’s restart was cleared by Contemponi but it was brilliantly ran back by Geordan Murphy and the move ended with a penalty in front of the Leinster posts, Goode converted for 3-3.
Leinster went back in front when Benjamin Kayser was penalised for not rolling away and Contemponi made it 6-3.
A good break from Seru Rabeni saw the ball go both left and right with just about the entire Tigers team touching the ball before Goode put Brett Deacon in for the try. Goode missed the conversion but Tigers were 8-6 in front.

Contemponi put the restart straight out and from the resulting scrum, Goode and Frank Murphy put Marco Wentzel away, his inside pass saw Rabeni go in under the posts for a try converted by Goode, Tigers ahead 15-6.

Andy Goode missed a penalty from the 10 metre line and from the resulting drop out a fine take from Wentzel led to a maul from which Leinsters’ Malcolm O’Kelly came in from the side and Julian White attempted quite literally to knock him back out. This resulted in White seeing yellow (luckily not red) and spending 10 minutes in the sin bin.
Leinster went on the attack and a move which shifted left to right ended with Brian O’Driscoll being stopped by a high tackle from Goode. This resulted in a fracas which then saw Goode sent to the sin bin leaving Tigers with 13 players for the rest of the first half. During this time Tigers defended manfully and repelled everything Leinster attempted.
The half time whistle was met by rapturous applause from the Welford Road faithful.

Into the second half and an up and under by Contemponi was snatched from the grasp of Luke Fitzgerald by Geordan Murphy who put in a lovely kick down the line which went out off Guy Easterby for a Tigers lineout. From the lineout Tigers got a penalty which Geordan Murphy kicked into touch on the 5 metre line. However Kayser threw over the top and Contemponi cleared downfield.

Contemponi missed a penalty after Martin Castrogiovanni was penalised but made up for it two minutes later with a successful penalty after Tom Varndell saved a try but in doing so slapped the ball out and was penalised taking the score to 15-9 in Tigers favour.

The next action saw Tigers old boy Leo Cullen penalised for a high tackle which resulted in a converted penalty by Andy Goode. 18-9.
Leinster had their best chance when Ollie LeRoux with three men outside him (and no Tigers in front of him) through out a poor pass that Rob Kearney was unable to hold and the chance went begging.
Leinster never threatened again and after a period of Tigers pressure in which Ayoola Erinle, Rabeni and Frank Murphy all went close, Ben Herring(from the bottom of a ruck) finally managed to dot the ball down on the line for a try, converted by Goode to make it 25-9.
The final 5 minutes saw no more scores and Tigers finished worthy winners.

Several Tigers players had great games including Wentzel, Herring and Rabeni(who’d be even better if he passed sometimes) but my man of the match was Geordan Murphy. I felt he had his best game for quite a while.

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