Leicester (25) 35
Tries: Tuilagi, Hamilton, Castrogiovanni, Chuter Cons: Flood 2, Murphy Pens: Flood 2, Staunton

London Irish (10) 19
Try: S Armitage Con: Homer Pens: Homer, Lamb 3

Castrogiovanni capped a man-of-the-match performance with a try

Leicester went six points clear at the top of the Guinness Premiership with a bonus-point win over London Irish.

Three first-half tries from Alesana Tuilagi, Scott Hamilton and the excellent Martin Castrogiovanni put the Tigers in control.

The Exiles kept in touch with a Steffon Armitage try just before half-time and Ryan Lamb's penalty made it 25-13.

But after a further penalty apiece the Tigers scored a fourth try via hooker George Chuter 11 minutes from time.

Leicester were dominant from the whistle and got off to a great start when Tuilagi finished a smart Tigers move on the blind side.

Castrogiovanni's quick hands fed centre Anthony Allen who found Tuilagi on the wing to score.

Toby Flood converted the try and put Leicester 10 points clear four minutes later with a well-taken penalty.

Irish pulled back from Tom Homer's penalty, only for Flood to sail over another kick.

606: DEBATE Your views on Leicester win

Leicester then scored one of the tries of the season, with a breathtaking move, started from a stolen line-out by Calum Green well inside their own half.

The ball quickly found its way to Lote Tuqiri who powered forward in a weaving run at speed before feeding Hamilton, who cut back outside to finish brilliantly in the corner.

It was a fitting tribute to Tuqiri's distinguished Leicester career in his last appearance in a Tigers shirt before he leaves Welford Road to play rugby league for Wests Tigers in Australia.

The try sent the home crowd into raptures and they would be treated to another just minutes later.

Substitute George Chuter scored the winning try for Leicester

Provider Castrogiovanni turned scorer, showing good vision to intercept a loose pass in the London Irish 22 to score under the posts.

A shell-shocked Irish did their best to claw their way back, but full-back Homer squandered two penalty chances.

Flood also missed a couple of opportunities to put Leicester further ahead, before being substituted as a precaution after suffering a blow to the head.

Irish managed to get back in the game with Armitage edging over to finish some good forward pressure.

The second half turned more into a kicking affair with Lamb converting three kicks for London Irish.

Chuter finished off another powerful move from the home side to score the winning try on 69 minutes.

Leicester head coach Richard Cockerill:
"The performance in the first half was fantastic. The second half was a bit scrappy and a bit disjointed but obviously losing Toby Flood didn't help that.

"But I am delighted with the performance, we scored four tries against a good side so you can't ask for anything more than that.

"The players had a tough week on the training field after last week [a 19-3 defeat at Northampton] and mentally it's been hard for everyone.

"It was good to bounce back and five points was just what we needed."

London Irish boss Toby Booth:

"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and we probably gambled a bit in our 22 for their fourth try which we probably didn't need to do.

"That was the killer blow in relation to losing bonus points but we have a couple of weeks off now.

"I said at half-time, amongst other things, we needed positives to take away with us because when we pick the reins up in seven days we need to have things to build on for the final furlong.

"And I think we saw that in the second half, there was something to build on, on what was a very difficult afternoon."

Leicester: Murphy, Hamilton, Tuqiri, Allen, Tuilagi, Flood, Youngs, Ayerza, Davies, Castrogiovanni, Green, Parling, Newby, Woods, Crane.

Replacements: Staunton for Flood (43), Stankovich for Ayerza (71), White for Castrogiovanni (71), Croft for Green (64), Chuter for Davies.

Not Used: B Deacon, Grindal, M. Smith.

London Irish: Homer, Rudd, Seveali'i, Mapusua, Hewat, Lamb, Hodgson, Murphy, Buckland, Rautenbach, Kennedy, Casey, Stowers, S Armitage, Hala'ufia.

Replacements: Lennard for Homer (74), Lahiff for Murphy (74), Coetzee for Buckland (60), Ion for Rautenbach (60), Gibson for Hala'ufia (75).

Not Used: Roche, Malone, Catt.

Sin Bin: Hala'ufia (51).

Att: 23,314

Ref: Christophe Berdos (France).

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