Leicester 37 Leinster 14:LEINSTER FINISHED their pre-season preparations with a 37-14 defeat away to Leicester Tigers in Welford Road.
The early stages were marked by an exchange of penalties as Toby Flood kicked two for Leicester while Fergus McFadden converted three for Leinster.
After 28 minutes, Leinster pressure told and outhalf Ian McKinley smartly gathered his own chip to expertly touch down in the corner in the 28th minute. McFadden’s conversion attempt fell narrowly wide.
The try sparked the hosts into life and from a scrum Alesana Tuilagi crashed through the middle to score, with Flood adding the points. On the stroke of half-time the Tigers were awarded a penalty try after a spell of pressure, which Flood converted, to give them a 20-14 advantage at the interval.
After the break Leicester’s experience told as tries from Dan Hipkiss, Manu Tuilagi and Alesana Tuilagi allowed them to run out convincing winners.
LEICESTER: G Murphy (S Hamilton, 57); S Hamilton (M Tuilagi ht), M Smith (D Hipkiss ht), A Allen (B Twelvetrees 60), A Tuilagi; T Flood (J Staunton 55), B Youngs (J Grindal 63); M Ayerza (D Cole ht), G Chuter (R Hawkins 57), M Castrogiovanni (B Stankovich ht), C Green (E Slater 59), G Skivington, C Newby (T Armes 64), B Woods, T Waldrom (D Markham 70).
LEINSTER: L Fitzgerald (I Madigan 50); D Kearney (M Keating 63), F McFadden, E Sheridan (B Macken 59), N Morris; I McKinley (I Nacewa 50), I Boss; H van der Merwe (J McGrath 73), R Strauss (J Harris-Wright 60), S Shawe (S Maguire 49), N Hines (M Galarza 53), D Toner (E O’Donoghue 29), D Ryan (P Ryan 73), S O’Brien, S Keogh (B Marshall 55).
