Jordan Olowofela's second-half try saw Leicester grab a lead they would not relinquish
European Challenge Cup Pool Five |
|---|
Leicester (10) 30 |
Tries: Lewis, Olowofela, White Cons: Ford 3 Pen: Ford Drop-goals: Ford 2 |
Cardiff Blues (14) 20 |
Tries: Adams, B Thomas Cons: Tovey 2 Pens: Tovey 2 |
Leicester reached the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals as they left Cardiff Blues' hopes of reaching the knockout stages in the balance.
Victory ensures Tigers will win Pool Five but Blues will need to better the result of second-placed Pau next week.
Leicester recovered from 14-10 behind at half-time as tries from Sam Lewis, Jordan Olowofela and Ben White were added to by 15 points from George Ford.
Blues had led twice early on when Josh Adams and Ben Thomas crossed.
Leicester round off their pool matches at second-placed Pau on Saturday, a match Blues will keep a close eye on when they host Calvisano in a must-win game.
Pau are two points ahead of Blues in third, who were unable to collect a losing bonus point from their trip to Welford Road as England fly-half Ford notched two late drop-goals.
Tigers themselves missed the chance to grab a try bonus point of their own, but limited Blues to just two Jason Tovey penalties in the second half in a largely polished performance.
The visitors were forced into a late change in their back line as winger Hallam Amos withdrew through injury.
Adams made the switch from outside centre to the left wing and was on the scoresheet after just six minutes. The other beneficiary of Amos' absence, centre Thomas, was to add a second score from close range after an impressive burst from his midfield partner Rey Lee-Lo.
But that was as good as it got for Blues as flanker Lewis' first-half try was added to by two more after the break. Telusa Veainu proved instrumental from full-back to set up both Olowofela and White.
He almost capped off a fine flowing move from his own 22 with a stunning run to the line, but brave Blues defending held him up.
That came shortly after a similar last-ditch effort from Tigers' George Worth which denied Matthew Morgan a try and saw him limp off with injury after just 48 minutes.
Leicester head coach Geordan Murphy told BBC Radio Leicester:
"A tale of two halves really. We started poorly and Cardiff put us under a lot of pressure.
"I thought we lacked physicality and we fell off a few too many tackles and didn't work hard enough defensively and found ourselves behind at half-time.
"We didn't have a lot of ball and turned it over inside two passes. But we came in and reset our clocks and I thought we built a lot of pressure nicely in that second half.
"I felt once we held on to a lot more ball, we would cause problems and that's how it turned out."
Leicester Tigers: Veainu; Olowofela, Worth, Eastmond, Hughes; Ford, White; Bateman, T Youngs (capt), Heyes, Batley, Wells, Lewis, Reffell, Coghlan.
Replacements: Polota-Nau, Genge, Leatigaga, Spencer, Boladau, Reid, Thompstone.
Cardiff Blues: Morgan; Harries, B Thomas, Lee-Lo, Adams; Tovey, Williams; Domachowski, Belcher, Lewis, Paulo, Turnbull, Lewis-Hughes, Navidi, S Davies
Replacements: E Lewis, Thyer, Arhip, Ratti, Boyde, O Robinson, T Williams, Millard.
Referee: George Clancy (Ire).
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