HEINEKEN CUP POOL 1 Leicester 34 (20) Tries: Baxter, Lloyd, Smith (2) Con: Pez (3) Pen: Pez (2) Dragons 3 (0) Pen: Mongomery Att: 15,093

Leicester have secured their opening Heineken Cup victory of the season, easing past the Dragons at Welford Road.

Tries from former Salford rugby league star Neil Baxter, Leon Lloyd and Ollie Smith (2) left the Welsh club floundering.

Argentine fly-half Ramiro Pez finished the game with 14 points to signal his European intent.

The Dragons could manage only one penalty - from full-back turned fly-half Percy Montgomery - on a day they will largely want to forget.

The result leaves Pool One wide open with French giants Stade Francais and the Tigers leading both Ulster and the Dragons by just one point.

Man-of-the-match Martin Johnson said: "It's just good to get out there and play.

"Leon's interception came at a pretty crucial time."

That was more like a Leicester performance Tigers captain Neil Back

Dragons coach Mike Ruddock admitted his side would need to take the defeat in their stride.

"This is only our second Heineken Cup match," he added.

"We'll just make sure we give them a good reception when they visit Rodney Parade."

Leicester were gifted a dream start when Pez's sliced kick was knocked on in front of his own line by Ben Breeze.

Baxter picked up for one of the most straight-forward tries of the season.

Pez added the extras as well as a quick penalty to give the home side an early 10-0 lead.

With the Dragons struggling for possession the deficit only ever looked like increasing - and so it did with another Pez strike mid-way through the half.

Minutes later, things got worse for the Welsh club when Hal Luscombe was sin-binned for diving over the top.

If that was not bad enough, Lloyd then grabbed the Tigers' second try with a timely interception when the Dragons had a clear two-man overlap deep inside Leicester's 22.

At 20-0 down at the break, the Dragons had it all to do, but again it was Leicester who stepped up a gear when Smith finished off a fine back-line move.

A tough day for us but we're still very positive Dragons coach Mike Ruddock

Pez continued his good day with the boot from the touchline, before the Dragons finally registered on the scoreboard with Montgomery's second penalty attempt.

The score failed to ignite a Welsh fightback, however, and again the visitors found themselves camped inside their own 22.

With 20 minutes to go there was never any chance of an upset.

But the Dragons fought back well - if only defensively - before Smith ran a superb line to seal his double as well as an all important bonus point, to the delight of the capacity crowd.

Leicester Tigers: Jaco van der Westhuyzen; Neil Baxter, Leon Lloyd, Daryl Gibson, Ollie Smith; Ramiro Pez, Austin Healey; Graham Rowntree, Dorian West, Julian White, Martin Johnson, Ben Kay, Lewis Moody, Neil Back (capt), Martin Corry.
Replacements: Jim Richards, Darren Morris, Louis Deacon, Adam Balding, Tom Tierney, Freddie, Sam Vesty.

Dragons: S Tuipulotu; G Arasa, H Luscombe, A Marinos (capt), B Breeze; P Montgomery, G Baber; R Snow, P Young, C Anthony, I Gough, P Sidoli, J Ringer, J Forster, R Beattie.
Replacements: K Crawford, A Black, M Owen, R Oakley, R Jones, C Warlow, S Winn.

Referee: Joel Dume (France)