In an absorbing Heineken Cup contest, the Ospreys were still in the game with 10 minutes remaining but the Tigers burst into life as Toby Flood, Ben Youngs and Manu Tuilagi scored late tries to keep Leicester in the race for the knockout stages.
The final score-line doesn’t do justice to the Ospreys who began the match like an express train with Ryan Jones pouncing in the second minute to score an early try. With Dan Bigger knocking over the conversion and a penalty the Tigers were rocking at 10-nil down.
The Ospreys frustrated the home side in the opening exchanges as Biggar pegged the home side back with a sound kicking game. Kahn Fotuali’l also tormented the Tigers back three with a bombardment of box kicks as Leicester were left frustrated as they couldn’t gain any momentum.
Slowly but surely the Leicester scrum began to turn the screw and get on top of the Ospreys pack. In the 28th minute, the Tigers were awarded a penalty at a scrum and Flood stepped up and knocked over the penalty to secure Leicester’s first points of the afternoon with a straight forward shot at goal.
Four minutes later Tuilagi finished off a brilliant move by the Tigers backs to leave the score deadlocked 10-10 at the break.
Biggar put the Ospreys back in front two minutes after the re-start with a long range effort after the Tigers were penalised at a scrum. But that was cancelled out almost immediately by Flood after the Ospreys defence was caught offside.
The Ospreys, already under immense pressure in the set-piece, lost influential Adam Jones to a knee injury, Aaron Jarvis replacing him.
Ryan Bevington was penalised again at a scrum which resulted in Flood sending over a long range penalty with nonchalant ease to put the Tigers 16-13 in front. Further indiscipline by the visitors at a ruck, compounded by back chat, gave Flood another shot at goal and even though he lined it up from inside his own half, his attempt never looked like missing as the Tigers stranglehold became even more firmer.
Bigger pegged back three points with another well struck penalty after Goneva was caught offside and despite hardly having any possession, the Ospreys were still in the game with 20 minutes remaining.
The Tigers scrum, which had been so dominant, was penalised again and Biggar responded with his unerring boot to level the scores at 19-19.
The battle between the two boots continued when Flood hoofed over a penalty eight metres inside his own half to edge the Tigers 22-19 in front.
The Ospreys looked to have thrown all their hard work away when Biggar’s pass was pickpocketed by his opposite number Flood who sprinted 50metres to outstrip the visitor’s defence to score by the posts. His conversion put clear daylight between the two sides for the first time in the game.
However the Ospreys refused to throw in the towel and Bigger responded with a penalty to bring the Ospreys to within seven points – and a losing bonus point. But that was snatched away from them when Ben Youngs scored in the corner with a stunning breakaway try for the hosts.
Tuilagi ensured the Tigers secured a vital bonus point for four tries when he pounced from close range after Mafi was pulled down just short of the line.
Despite the convincing victory, the Tigers are third in Pool 2 behind Toulouse and the Ospreys. And even though their record of never having lost to a Welsh side on home soil remains intact, Richard Cockerill’s side know that they had to come through one hell of a scare before the floodgates opened late on.
