Tigers edge thriller against Perpignan
Toby Flood showed his class today
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Saturday, 06, Dec 2008 08:01
Leicester Tigers remained top of pool three in the Heineken Cup after claiming an impressive 38-27 win over Perpignan this evening.
England fly-half Toby Flood was the star man for the Tigers as he grabbed a 23-point haul, which included a fine solo try. Leicester managed to claim a bonus point as Aaron Mauger, Jordan Crane and Matt Smith added further tries.
But it was by no means an easy win for the English side as Perpignan stayed in the game thanks to tries from Maxime Mermoz, Ovidiu Tonita and a penalty try.
Flood, who had a poor game for England against the All Blacks last week, was close to his best form today in front of national manager Martin Johnson. The fly-half started with two early penalties before scoring a brilliant try.
He first side-stepped to leave Nathan Hines for dead before going past three more players to score the first try of the game.
Perpignan, who were being watched by new signing Dan Carter, were ready to fight and were on level terms soon after. First David Mele kicked two penalties and then they scored the try of the match.
Centre Mermoz caught a line-out ball inside his own half and then bulldozed his way through the Leicester defence and ran almost the entire length of the pitch to score the try.
Leicester managed to regain the lead before half-time as Mauger went over after good work from Dan Hipkiss. The English side started strongly in the second period and extended their lead with two more Flood penalties.
Perpignan refused to go away and were back within six points thanks to a try from Tonita. But the French side were unable to shut-out the Tigers and they sealed the points with tries from Crane and Smith.