Tom Croft moved to 7 to accommodate the change with Jordan Crane continuing at Number 8.  Marco Wentzel partnered Ben Kay in the starting line up, which other than the aforementioned changes was the team that had dominated the Ospreys a week ago. 

The match began with Treviso showing that they were quite prepared to run the ball and play an expansive game, with their full back Brendan Williams to the fore in most of their most promising moves, testing the Tigers’ defence with some jinking and speedy running. The most unfortunate person in the ground during the first few minutes was one of the home stewards.  Despite a position of relative safety on the second tier of the stand, in front of the massed ranks of Tigers devotees, from a clearing kick, the ever dependable Geordan Murphy managed to ping the ball off the back of his head with pinpoint accuracy.  Naturally, the caring Tigers contingent were far too sympathetic to find any humour in this incident; any bouts of laughter were merely to make light of the young man’s misfortune and spare his embarrassment. 

Back to the on-field action and after 12 minutes Johne Murphy made an excellent break through the Treviso cover, with Flood getting on the end of the move to go over for his and Tigers’ first try of the afternoon.  Flood converted his score to make it 0-7 to the away side.  When further Tigers pressure led to a series of infringements close to the Treviso line, Captain Corry elected to take the scrum rather than a relatively straightforward kick.  The decision paid off as Jordan Crane went over to take the score to 0-12 after powerful play from the pack.  Flood missed the conversion. 

On 22 minutes a nice break by the impressive Williams almost led to a try for Treviso but the scrambling Tigers defence managed to stifle the attack at the last second.  The home side gained some consolation when after a hospital pass from Aaron Mauger to Geordan Murphy, they were awarded a penalty which fly half Andrea Marcato successfully kicked.   

The Treviso pack were warned several times by Mr Poite for infringing and on 34 minutes Toby Flood scored his second try, again after Tigers had spurned three points and taken a scrum.  Flood missed the conversion but at 3-17, the travelling faithful were becoming confident that a bonus point might be in the offing.  However, it was Treviso who had the last word in an entertaining first half.  Tigers stole a line out after a Treviso penalty had found touch but conceded a scrum at which Martin Corry was penalised for not rolling away from the tackle.  Marcato brought the score to 6-17 with his second penalty. The second half began as the first, with Treviso ever willing to play 15 man rugby.  The home side stretched the Tigers defence before a promising move was snuffed out on the 22. 

More pressure from the home side brought another penalty and with the score at 9-17, Treviso were beginning to regain a foothold in the game.  That foothold became more secure when a length of the field move, initiated by Williams finished with Treviso centre  De Jager hacking on and collecting the bounce to go over for a try, to the delight of the home fans.  The successful conversion brought the hosts to within a point of Tigers at 16-17 and suddenly, the result was not looking so certain.  In the 51^st minute Flood kicked a penalty to put a little daylight between the sides. 

There was relief all round for those in the Leicester camp when this was followed two minutes later by Johne Murphy’s first try of the match, a bonus point score for Leicester, which Flood converted.  His namesake Geordan crossed on 58 minutes to make it 16-32 and despite the missed conversion this heralded the beginning of an onslaught by Tigers.  

 A couple of substitutions, Rabeni for Hipkiss and Dupuy for Ellis did not alter Tigers’ rhythm and on 60 minutes, a yellow card for Treviso’s Kingi compounded the Italian sides woes.  Seru Rabeni, who seemed to be relishing his first game of the season, almost powered over the line but his last ditch pass, as he realised he couldn’t quite make the line, went forward.  This made little difference as Tigers again forced Treviso to scrum at a penalty, from which a penalty try ensued.  Just before the conversion there was a possible “what happened next” moment when the otherwise excellent Brendan Williams attempted to charge down Flood’s conversion. 

As if realising at the last instant he couldn’t charge the kick, he seemed to overrun the ball.  Flood looked bemusedly at the referee but then decided he could kick the two points anyway, which he duly did to take his team to 16-39.  The tide had turned inexorably Tigers way and it had now become a question of how many points they could rack up; a factor that may be all important come final reckoning in the group. Shortly after Tigers’ penalty try, Treviso’s Williams was taken high by Rabeni.  The full back took some time to regain his feet but was led from the field to deserving applause from both sets of fans.  By this time, Derek Hougaard had come on for Toby Flood with Brett Deacon doing likewise for Martin Corry. 

A  late tackle by Rabeni led to a penalty reversal and another yellow card after some foul play from Treviso.  From the ensuing play, Jordan Crane drove over for his deserved second try.  At 16-46 down, Williams may have been better to have stayed off the pitch but credit to his spirit he came back on after 72 minutes, only to be led off again a minute later after being steamrollered during another surging Tigers move at which the irrepressible Tom Croft was at the forefront. 

Moments later, Geordan Murphy carved an opportunity on the left wing and with the line beckoning, unselfishly passed inside to Johne for the winger to take the ball round to the posts.  Hougaard converted and the score was 16-53.  The last try of the game came after good work from Matt Smith who passed the ball out to Johne Murphy, who duly completed his hat trick, touching down wide on the left.  Hougaard kicked the difficult conversion to make the final score 16-60 to Tigers. It would be difficult to pick a man of the match in the light of some excellent performances but for the author, that accolade goes to Johne Murphy who looked Tigers’ most creative and potent threat throughout. 

Tom Croft showed again what a tremendous athlete he is and how dangerous he can be in open play with his speed.  Rabeni looked eager for action but perhaps needs to channel this enthusiasm in the correct way as he can ill afford too many more disciplinary problems due to over exuberance. 

There were many notable performances with all of the Tigers side playing well.  Credit should also be given to Treviso, who never gave up running the ball but maybe ran out of steam in the last 20 minutes.  They stretched the Tigers defence almost to breaking point on a few occasions but failed to make it count where a more clinical outfit would have capitalised.  However, they contributed to what was a highly entertaining game, after which the travelling contingent were wearing the broadest smiles in the Veneto region of Italy.  Let’s hope the Tigers can keep the momentum going!

Venue:  Stadio di Monigo, Treviso, Italy

18^th October 2008 

Referee: Romain Poite (France) Weather: warm and sunny 

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