Second half fightback not enough for Leicester

Leicester 17 Biarritz 21

Zurich Premiership leaders Leicester redeemed themselves with two late tries to grab a glimmer of Heineken Cup hope after a horror first-half show as they lost at home to Biarritz today.

The two-time former winners, who went into the match with high hopes of clinching a home quarter-final, looked down and out trailing 18-0 at half-time.

But tries in the last eight minutes from substitute Alex Tuilagi and Harry Ellis enabled the Tigers to salvage an unlikely bonus point from another generally lacklustre display.

Martin Johnson’s men conceded a sorry double to the Frenchmen, who made a mockery of their dismal away record in Europe to register arguably their finest win and will top pool one if they beat Wasps next Saturday.

Star-studded Biarritz established a stranglehold with a faultless first-half display in which they built up an unassailable lead.

The Tigers, 23-8 losers at the Stade Aguilera in October, restored some pride with a spirited fightback but are still likely to pay a heavy price for a miserable performance before the break.

The Frenchmen came up with almost the perfect opening half in which they secured points from virtually every visit to the Tigers’ 22.

The Premiership pace-setters, on the other hand, made few inroads into the visitors’ half as they wasted first use of the stiff breeze at their backs.

By the time they earned Andy Goode a kickable penalty, Leicester were already 18-0 behind – and when the fly-half kicked the ball dead instead of finding touch it summed up their miserable afternoon.

The wet and windy conditions ought to have suited the Englishmen. But they were strangely out of touch in the absence of England number eight Martin Corry, and Goode’s passing was frequently awry.

The game might have taken a different course had Leicester made full use of an early break by livewire scrum-half Ellis. But he failed to see Geordan Murphy on his outside, and his kick was gratefully snapped up by winger Jimmy Marlu.

Biarritz took a fifth-minute lead when lock Jerome Thion took clean line-out ball 15 metres out and was driven over the line – and they added a second try when Dimitri Yachvili’s pass was flicked on by second row Olivier Olibeau to find Marlu in space on the left flank.

Yachvili, who formed a dynamic partnership with more than useful makeshift fly-half Damien Traille, added one conversion in addition to a 14th-minute penalty.

Traille put over a drop goal on 17 minutes to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Goode eventually opened his side’s account two minutes into the second half with a penalty, and breaks by Murphy and Ollie Smith temporarily lifted the capacity 16,815 crowd.

But there seemed no way back when the combative Ellis was sin-binned on 53 minutes for using his elbow in the face of Yachvili, who got up to kick the 50-metre penalty and restore his side’s 18-point lead.

The 14-man Tigers thought they had scored a try when Goode sliced through the Biarritz defence only for the video referee to rule he had failed to reach the line.

Their last chance to claw their way back in the game disappeared when winger Tuilagi dropped Leon Lloyd’s pass with the line beckoning, although the Samoan finished off intense pressure with a try on 74 minutes.

At least the Tigers finished on a high when Ellis used his deceptive strength to force his way past Traille and Imanol Harinordoquy to claim his side’s second try, to which Goode added his third goal.