Leicester took the field with their jerseys turned inside out to avoid a colour clash, but it was the only strip that London Irish tore off the English champions, who opened up a seven-point lead at the top of the table as they marched towards their fourth consecutive title.

The Irish attracted by far their biggest crowd of the season to the Madejski Stadium in Reading, but the atmosphere was muted until a period in the second half when the Tigers showed a momentary and unexpected vulnerability.

They were reduced to 14 men in the 55th-minute when centre Leon Lloyd was sent to the sin-bin after kicking the ball out of a ruck following a surging run by London Irish wing Paul Sackey, the one time the Leicester defence was extended, but even with a man advantage, Irish never looked like fashioning a try and they scored two penalties to one in the England international's absence.

In contrast, when Leicester found themselves a man up in the 76th-minute after flanker Kieron Dawson saw yellow for stamping at a ruck, they scored two tries and turned a 16-15 lead into a healthy victory in four minutes, denying London Irish a bonus point in the process, and the main difference between the sides was the level the Tigers were able to step up to.

Even though Irish were in it until flanker Lewis Moody scored Leicester's second try in stoppage time, they had profited from the Tigers' propensity for conceding penalties and created little.

Brendan Venter, London Irish's player-coach, while praising the referee Chris White as the best he had encountered this season, said that the main problem when playing Leicester was that they were able to get away with slowing down the opposition's ball at the breakdown. "We were in with a chance of winning until Kieron was sin-binned," said Venter. "We had no chance without our open-side."

Dawson had not had an impressive match, missing a number of first-up tackles, but he was unfortunate to be sent to the sin-bin after Leicester had wilfully prevented the Irish securing ruck ball. What should have been the opportunity for Barry Everitt to kick his sixth penalty turned into a touch-finder for Leicester and the effective end of the match. Officials should be able to distinguish between rucking and gratuitous stamping.

For all Leicester's gamesmanship, they were worthy winners. London Irish had scored seven tries in each of their two previous league matches, but they never threatened to score one yesterday. They needed Everitt to be at his most assured as a goal-kicker, but he missed two out of seven penalties and Leicester rallied from 15-13 down to score 17 unanswered points in the final quarter.

LONDON IRISH: Horak; Sackey, Appleford, Venter, Bishop (Thrower, 37min); Everitt, Edwards (Martens 64); Hatley (Worsley 46), Kirke (Drotske 50), Hardwick (Halford 46), Strudwick (capt), Williams (Danaher 65), Halvey, Dawson, Sheasby.

LEICESTER: Stimpson; Murphy (Goode 71), Lloyd, Kafer, Booth; Healey, Hamilton; Rowntree, West, Nebbett, M Johnson (capt), Kay, Moody, Back, Balding (W Johnson 76).

Referee: C White (Gloucestershire).