 | Leicester: (19) 26
Tries: Buckland, Vesty, Smith, Skinner
Cons: Vesty 3 Leeds: (6) 23
Tries: Marshall, Biggs
Cons: De Marigny 2
Pens: De Marigny 3 |
Will Skinner scored with just eight seconds left as Leicester got out of jail against Leeds in the Premiership. The hosts led 19-6 at half-time courtesy of tries from James Buckland, Sam Vesty and Ollie Smith.
They looked set for an easy win but Leeds scored late tries through Justin Marshall and Tom Biggs and seemed to have grabbed a dramatic victory.
But the Tigers launched a desperate late rolling maul and Skinner crossed to leave Leeds with just a bonus point.
The Tykes took the lead through an early De Marigny penalty but Leicester hit back after seven minutes when Buckland touched down after a trademark rumbling maul.
|  We could just as easily have lost that game |
Vesty - standing in for regular kicker Andy Goode - converted and he crossed for Leicester's second try just under 10 minutes later, although he was unable to add the extras a second time.
De Marigny confirmed his standing as a top-line kicker when he trimmed the gap with a sweetly-struck long range penalty after 20 minutes.
But the Tykes were soon breached again as Smith knifed through to score from the Leeds 22m line, with Vesty converting from in front of the posts.
De Marigny missed a penalty early in the second half but the Italian international was soon on target to trim Leicester's lead to 10 points.
| We are getting a team together who can compete at this level |
Leicester switched off for much of the second half and with 13 minutes to go former All Blacks scrum-half Marshall forced his way over under the posts for Leeds.
De Marigny's conversion made it 19-16 and with four minutes to go he was on target again as Biggs finished off a sweeping move to put the Tykes into the lead.
It looked as if Leicester's long unbeaten home run in the league was coming to an end but they were awarded a late penalty.
After kicking into the corner Skinner plunged over from the resulting rolling maul, with Vesty converting to confirm victory for the Tigers.
Leicester head coach Pat Howard:
"We could just as easily have lost that game. We outscored them four tries to two but we're not going to panic. "We tried to be disciplined and that cost us a bit of momentum in the contact.
"There were some positives. The first 25 minutes were good but we lost our way in the last 10 minutes of the half."
Leeds coach Phil Davies:
"We got a point and that's the most important thing. We're disappointed we didn't hold onto the lead. "We can take some pride from the way we played in the second half. The effort was fantastic and to come back and take the lead was pretty special.
"We are getting a team together who can compete at this level."
Leicester: Vesty; Lloyd, Smith, Hipkiss, A Tuilagi; Healey, Bemand; Rowntree, Buckland, Holford; Cullen, Kay; Abraham, Jennings, L Deacon.
Replacements: Morris for Rowntree (50), Skinner for Jennings (72).
Not Used: Taikaufa, Hamilton, H. Tuilagi, Broadfoot, Dodge.
Leeds: Biggs; Snyman, Jones, Blackett, Bell; De Marigny,
Marshall; Lensing, Bulloch, Shelley; Hooper, Palmer; Dunbar, Parks, Thomas.
Replacements: Balshaw for Blackett (60), Rawlinson for Bulloch (53), Gerber for Shelley (37), Murphy for Hooper (60), Reid for Dunbar (60).
Not Used: McMillan, Craig.
Att: 16,815
Referee: Chris White (RFU).
MMIX
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