Leicester 29 Leinster 18

Heineken Cup holders Leicester demolished Irish challengers Leinster at Welford Road to move into the semi-finals.

Successive defeats to Llanelli and Harlequins had led many to question whether the Tigers' reign was at an end. But they could even gift Leinster a 10-point start and still emerge comfortable victors, responding with four tries in 15 first-half minutes to shatter the Celtic League winners.

As usual, Austin Healey was at the centre of the Tigers' most incisive attacking moves, and marked his return from a three-match ban with his side's third try. Freddie Tuilagi was another hero, but man of the match honours went to England flanker Neil Back, who started and finished Leicester's try-scoring spree.

But it couldn't have started much worse for Leicester. They found themselves 10 points down after the opening quarter, fly-half Nathan Spooner opening the scoring with an easy penalty, and Denis Hickie grabbed the first try in controversial fashion.

Leicester's Irish full-back Geordan Murphy failed to gather Spooner's long clearance downfield. Hickie hacked the loose ball on and led the chase to the line. The Irish winger appeared to be pulled back illegally, but play was allowed to continue and in a despairing plunge for the line, Healey appeared to get the first touch.
The match officials thought otherwise, and after consulting his touch-judge, referee Joel Jutge awarded the try.

Leicester, led by Martin Johnson, roared back. Within five minutes, Ben Kay and England discard Martin Corry collected clean line-out ball. On the first occasion, Leicester drove forward and Neil Back peeled off to score. On the second, Leinster bravely held their opponents up, so the home side simply swung the ball wide, Lloyd took Healey's long pass and sped into the corner to level the scores.

Healey skipped over shortly afterwards after more Leicester forward pressure before Murphy made it four tries in 13 minutes, taking advantage of a four-man overlap after Freddie Tuilagi had linked with Back down the left wing.

Spooner offered his team some hope with an injury-time penalty, but Leicester maintained their dominance after the interval, Back scoring a replica of his first effort after 51 minutes.
Now it was Leinster's turn to find themselves heading for defeat, but like their opponents, the Celtic League winners have champion qualities, even if scrum-half Ben Willis appeared to hit the touch flag as he plunged over in the corner just before the hour.
Crucially, Spooner failed with the conversion, then a long-range penalty as Leicester clung to an 11-point lead.

On a rare break, Hickie's kick was followed by a rampaging Leinster forward drive, Lewis Moody deliberately put his hands on the ball in the ruck, and his outstanding performance was marred by a yellow card which effectively ended his afternoon.

Leinster had their chances, but a combination of elementary mistakes and Girvan Dempsey's failure to evade Kronfeld's attentions down the left wing ensured not even one of the two tries they required was forthcoming.