Pau 24-17 Leicester: Tigers lose but seal European Challenge Cup home quarter-final

Leicester lost for the first time in six European Challenge Cup pool games as they went down to defeat in Pau.

But they still had cause to celebrate when Tom Hardwick's last-minute penalty earned Tigers the losing bonus point that guaranteed a home quarter-final.

Although Tigers had already won Pool 5, only the best four pool winners are at home in the last eight.

But Geordan Murphy's side rallied well from being two tries down to the French side inside the opening six minutes.

Leicester finished top of the group on 23 points, the same as Castres in Pool 1. But they secured that home tie with an overall points difference of +86, better than Castres' +56.

And the two sides will now play each other in the quarter-finals on the first weekend in April, as there is no draw. The fourth-best qualified side play the fifth.

Pau's victory was enough to take second place, edging out Cardiff Blues, despite their 10-try thrashing of Italian side Calvisano, but it was not enough to earn one of the three quarter-final places for finishing second, which were taken by Edinburgh, Dragons and Scarlets.

In the other three last-eight ties, top qualifiers Toulon will host Scarlets, who booked the last quarter-final place by winning at London Irish on Saturday night, Bordeaux will host Edinburgh and Bristol will play Dragons,

Tigers trailed 24-7 at the break at Stade du Hameau after two tries from home winger Vincent Pinto and one from prop Teddy Leffler.

All Tigers had to offer in reply was a converted score from centre Noel Reid, but it was a different story after the break as Tigers shut out the French.

Scrum-half Ben White came off the bench to score on 62 minutes, Hardwick converting. And he then produced an even more crucial kick following a French infringement 40 metres out to reduce the final arrears to seven points.

The game also produced a bizarre second-half incident when Pau played on with 15 men for over two minutes, unspotted by the officials, despite having prop Geoffrey Moise yellow-carded - a moment that had Tigers boss Murphy frantically racing down from his seat in the stand down to the touchline to point it out.

Tigers head coach Geordan Murphy told BBC Radio Leicester:

"To be 14 points down away from home in France is challenging. The boys fought back well to come away with what we needed, a home quarter-final.

"We already knew we needed to be better at picking up bonus points. We've been guilty in the past of not staying in big games, of going off script and giving away tries.

"Away from home in the south of France there is a different mentality. The time keeping was questionable. Decisions go against you. But you can't control these things. That's what makes this result more impressive.

"I always saw this competition as an opportunity to get game time and grow the squad. But we have some big games coming up in the Premiership and it doesn't get much bigger than Bath away next week."

Pau: Smith; Pinto, Fumat, Votu, Septar; Hastoy, Daubagna (capt); Moise, Barka, Leffler, Pesenti, Marchois, Tagitagivalu, Erbani, Habel-Kuffner.

Replacements: Lespiaucq-Brettes, Odishvili, Poulain, Ramsay, Whitelock, Marques, Taylor, Malie,

Sin-Bin: Moise (63).

Leicester: Worth; Thompstone, Tuilagi (capt), Reid, Hughes; Hardwick, Simmons; Gigena, Polota-Nau, Heyes, Batley, Spencer, Wells, Boladau, Kalafamoni.

Replacements: Kerr, Bateman, Cole, Lewis, Taufua, White, Costelow, Holmes.

Sin-Bin: Worth (35).

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Wales).

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