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Rugby Union

Leicester defeat sends Leinster spiralling out of Europe

19/01/2008

Leicester overturned Leinster 25-9 at Welford Road to end the Magners League side's interest in the Heineken Cup at the pool stage.

The Tigers were already out of contention for a quarter-final spot after losing away to Edinburgh last week, but the Irish side still had a faint hope of making the last eight as a best runner-up.

However it was the home team who played as if they still had it all to win in the early stages and they soon had Brian O'Driscoll's men at a 15-6 disadvantage through tries from Brett Deacon and Seru Rabeni.

Flanker Deacon crossed out wide on 20 minutes after a series of forward-dominated phases had bruised the Tigers' way up the middle of the pitch.

Rabeni followed just two minutes after as the Fijian came flying in off his wing to cut an angle inside a ragged away defence.

The full-blooded action spilled over into violence just before the half-hour as Julian White escaped with a yellow card for landing a heavy punch on Malcolm O'Kelly and Andy Goode was also consigned to the sin-bin for a high tackle on O'Driscoll.

As well as reducing the hosts to 13 men, the latter incident sparked a mass brawl that the referee did well to contain.

After the break Felipe Contepomi and Andy Goode traded penalties before Ben Herring touched down for the Tigers' decisive score seven minutes from time.

The New Zealander burrowed over from close range to close out the win for Leicester and drag Leinster out of the competition with them.