Leicester book a date with Sale

Leicester Tigers claimed a spot in the final of the Guinness Premiership by demolishing London Irish at Welford Road on Sunday, running in five tries on their way to an emphatic 40-8 victory.

The result means that the Midlanders end the season without having tasted defeat at home and will travel to Twickenham with their tails up and hungry to reclaim the title that has eluded their grasp since 2000/01.

Fast and lethal the Exiles backs may be, but you can do nothing without the ball. For the opening 20 minutes, the Tigers had 73 percent of the possession and the Irish had not once encroached into the home team's 22. When they did five minutes later, they scored, but they were already 10-0 behind, not a good position to be in at Welford Road.

Both teams came into the match as though the outcome would be decided on pace of play alone. It was little wonder that the penalty count for the first quarter was ten - five apiece. Most of the offences were for not rolling away or offside; correct decisions all of them, but all brought about by the pace of play rather than any negative loitering.

One of the ten was for a nasty stamp to the head of Harry Ellis by his perceived rival for the England number nine shirt, Paul Hodgson. Hodgson was yellow-carded - it could easily have been red - and on this comparative showing, England will have to wait a while yet for the Hodgson-Hodgson half-back combination.

Andy Goode, who was by far the more assured of the two number tens, opened the scoring after six minutes with a penalty after Richard Skuse was caught offside. Then after a quarter of an hour, the Tigers' superiority was turned into points.

With Hodgson cooling his heels on the touchline, Ellis worked the blind side expertly to create the space, and although the initial phase yielded nothing, out the ball came after drives by Lewis Moody and Graham Rowntree to Alesana Tuilagi on the short side again, and over the Samoan went in the corner. Goode made it 10-0 with the conversion - a cracking touchline effort which fully banished the memory of a horrible earlier penalty miss.

The Exiles battled their way back into the game, and finally encroached into the Tigers' 22. Riki Flutey had hitherto failed to stamp any authority on the game, and he couldn't do so with his first kick at goal either, which was so far wide it crossed the goal-line outside the 15m line.

However, from a line-out moments later - and just after Ben Kay had been sent to the bin for tackling a jumper in the air - Dominic Feaunati wriggled inside a couple of tacklers, and sent Olivier Magne through a hole for a try after 25 minutes. Flutey's conversion attempt was little better than his penalty shot had been, keeping it at 10-5.

Ellis, who showed the promise of old again, broke superbly on the half hour, and only a desperate ball-and-all tackle by the covering Juan Manuel Leguizamon saved a try. From the line-out, Flutey's attempted clearance was charged down, and only a similar tackle by Sailosi Tagicakibau stopped Varndell in the corner.

But Ellis broke again on 32 minutes, leaving Hodgson for dead, and skirting round Delon Armitage for a wonderful scrum-half's try. Goode made it 17-5, and converted a 53m penalty right on half-time to make it 20-5 at the break.

The Exiles slowed their game down after the break, and for the third quarter their pragmatism seemed to be working. Mike Catt brought them back to within two scores with an easy penalty, and they enjoyed plenty of possession and territory. But the 8-9-10 combination was seriously misfiring, and Flutey was given all sorts of scraps, few with anything worth feeding on.

Goode extended the lead just before the hour mark, and put the writing on the wall, and then came the killer blow. Mike Catt, in an effort to get his team going a la Causeway, fired out a long pass towards Tagicakibau, but only found the gleeful hands of Leon Lloyd, who coasted home from 60m with his first touch of the ball.

It was game over from then on. All of the Exiles' defensive efforts foundered on a rock-like Leicester defence, and then Ellis chipped wide for Geordan Murphy to collect and score what was possibly the try of the game, suitably converted by Goode to make it 35-8.

Eight minutes left, and Gonzalo Tiesi failed to drift onto the onrushing Ollie Smith, whose long pass bounced past Murphy and into the hands of Lloyd for another score.

A cruel blow for the Irish, whose frustration spilled over at the final whistle as a brawl erupted, although there was plenty of evidence to suggest some typically pathetic baiting from usual suspects Austin Healey and Lloyd. It rather took the gloss off the performance as well, but Sale will not have been fooled. Leicester were the strongest of the four on display today, and the final is already a nail-biter.

Man of the match: It could only be a Tiger, and the one with the sharpest claws today was Harry Ellis. So disappointing in the Six Nations, and on the back end of an anti-climactical season, Ellis delivered a snappy, controlled, and occasionally inspirational performance from the base of the scrum. Just in time for June.

The scorers:

For Leicester Tigers:
Tries: Tuilagi, Ellis, Lloyd 2, Murphy
Cons: Goode 3
Pens: Goode 3

For London Irish:
Try: Magne
Pen: Catt

Yellow card(s): Hodgson (London Irish) - stamping, 13

The teams:

Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Alesana Tuilagi, 13 Ollie Smith, 12 Daryl Gibson, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Harry Ellis, 8 Martin Corry (c), 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Shane Jennings, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 Julian White, 2 George Chuter, 1 Graham Rowntree.
Replacements: 16 James Buckland, 17 Michael Holford, 18 James Hamilton, 19 Will Johnson, 20 Austin Healey, 21 Sam Vesty, 22 Leon Lloyd.

London Irish: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Mike Catt (captain), 12 Dominic Feau’nati, 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Riki Flutey, 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 Juan Leguizamon, 7 Olivier Magne, 6 Declan Danaher, 5 Kieran Roche, 4 Bob Casey, 3 Richard Skuse, 2 Robbie Russell, 1 Neal Hatley.
Replacements: 16 Tom Warren, 17 David Paice, 18 Nick Kennedy, 19 Phil Murphy, 20 Gonzalo Tiesi, 21 Ben Willis, 22 Barry Everitt.

Referee: Dave Pearson
Touch judges: Peter Huckle, Stuart Terheege
Assessor: Brian Campsall
TMO: Brian Abrahams
Timekeeper: Graham Hughes

By Danny Stephens