A grand slam has already been safely delivered and now English club rugby is celebrating its best European season for nine years. Three Premiership teams will feature in the last four of the Champions’ Cup, the best return since 2006‑07 and only the second time in the tournament’s 21-year history. Given the outcome of the World Cup last autumn it is a half-decent turnaround.
At this rate there could even be an all-English final in Lyon next month, although Leicester will face significantly tougher opposition in their semi-final, to be played at Nottingham’s City Ground, on Sunday week than they did here. There is meant to be no such thing as an easy European quarter-final but, at times, a desperately disjointed Stade seemed intent on disproving that truism. By the end the six-try Tigers were running wild and free and could have put 60 points on the old scoreboard.
Leicester were hardly complaining, having not reached a semi-final at this level since 2009 when they went on to win a penalty shootout in Cardiff only to lose in the Edinburgh final to Leinster. The Tigers have been steadily regaining their swagger this season and whenever Manu Tuilagi, Telusa Veainu or the outstanding Peter Betham had the ball there were vivid flashes of clear and present danger.
As Richard Cockerill joked afterwards this is no longer the Leicester of traditional arm-wrestling myth. “Maybe now the grounds have hardened up it suits the Leicester style of play,” quipped the Tigers’ director of rugby. “We can score a try and I’m very pleased with that part of the game. I’ll be in front of the board this week and they’ll be asking what the hell’s going on.”
Deep down, though, the cussed attitudes of old still linger. “We’re the unpopular side to support,” claimed Cockerill. “Everyone will want someone else to win apart from ourselves. That’s no problem. We know that in a one-off game we can beat anyone.”
His team certainly had too much for a Stade side who have gone into spiralling decline since winning the Top 14 title last season. Even when they did keep hold of possession for more than a few phases, the visitors were not so much loose as swinging like an unlocked gate. Their usual talisman, Sergio Parisse, was powerless to prevent the inevitable and one or two other well-known names were all but invisible.
The game, as a result, was effectively over inside 34 minutes, by which time Leicester had scored three converted tries largely thanks to Parisian doziness. Not even two minutes had elapsed when Djibril Camara was horribly exposed in the left corner, first carrying into touch and then allowing himself to be stripped of the ball and offering Tigers the chance of a quick throw-in. Burns duly obliged and Tuilagi trotted over for the easiest of tries.
A lovely flat pass from Betham exploited another defensive misjudgement down Stade’s right flank, allowing Niki Goneva to touch down the first of his two tries and within a couple of minutes Morné Steyn had unaccountably passed the ball straight to the lurking Freddie Burns, who scooted away to leave Leicester’s coaches openly chuckling at their good fortune.
Stade did have a Jonathan Ross in their back-row but at no stage did they ask any of the searching collective questions that might have inconvenienced their hosts. Julien Dupuy, the former Tigers’ scrum-half, did nip over for a try three minutes after half-time but thereafter it was a case of how grim the French side’s heaviest European Cup defeat would ultimately be.
Leicester’s more expansive mindset was also thrillingly evident in the shape of sparkling tries by Mike Fitzgerald and the quick-footed Veainu, with Cockerill quick to hail the input of his new head coach, the former All Black centre, Aaron Mauger. “It’s no secret that I brought Aaron in to help the team evolve and develop,” he confirmed. “He’s done a good job and we’re slowly evolving. I’m delighted for the team but we’ve still won nothing.”
That may yet change if they maintain their gathering momentum, starting away to Northampton this Saturday in a game which can effectively clinch the Tigers a top-four domestic finish. No-one will be keen to face Tuilagi and co in a one-off semi-final, particularly if they have already booked their place in Lyon and are vying for a first European crown since 2002. In that event the city of Leicester would have more than one hard-working, no-frills sporting team on the brink of something special. “There are a lot of similarities,” suggested Cockerill, “You only come to Leicester to play sport, you don’t come for anything else. There’s not much else here … though I used to live in Coventry and anything’s better than Coventry.”
Leicester Tait (capt); Veainu, Betham, Tuilagi, Goneva (Thompstone, 69); Burns (Williams, 52), B Youngs (Kitto, 68); Ayerza (Mulipola, 62), Thacker (Bateman, 61), Cole (Balmain, 66), Barrow, Kitchener, Fitzgerald (De Chaves, 68), O’Connor, McCaffrey (Croft, 63).
Tries Tuilagi, Goneva 2, Burns, Fitzgerald, Veainu. Cons Burns 4. Pen Burns.
Stade Français Camera (Bonneval, 64); Vuidravuwalu, Doumayrou, Danty, Sinzelle; Steyn (Plisson, 52), Dupuy (Tomas, 70), Zhvania (Priso, 66), Bonfils (Burden, 66), Slimani (Alo-Emile, 61), Pyle, Flanquart (Gabrillagues, 34), Ross (Alberts, 52), Lakafia, Parisse (capt).
Try Dupuy. Con Steyn. Pens Steyn 2.
Referee N Owens (Wales). Attendance 20,866.
