Stimpson seals it for Leicester

THEY were made to fight every inch of the way, but in the end Leicester managed to brush aside the threat of gallant Gloucester to book their place in the Heineken Cup final and keep their treble hopes alive.

And their inspiration proved to be Tim Stimpson who helped created a superb first-half try for centre Leon Lloyd, as well as scoring 14 points with his boot.

Yet Leicester, who won the English Premiership title at a canter, were given a major fright as Gloucester fought for every scrap of possession and territory.

The epic encounter seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of Tigers skipper Martin Johnson, who admitted his team were dejected despite their win.

"It was very nervous out there," said the England captain. "I have never seen a team so dejected having won a game. The boys know they have dropped from the standards we usually set.

"If we had been able to get some speed into our game we would have been okay but credit to Gloucester, they managed to slow us down."

Indeed, Johnson was as much to blame after being sin-binned for a 53rd-minute dust-up with Gloucester number eight Junior Paramore, who was also yellow-carded, and then survived a spell of Gloucester pressure in injury time.

Gloucester managed to steal lineout ball on a Leicester throw just five metres from the Tigers' line, but they could not capitalise and scrum-half Austin Healey's 40-metre clearance to touch proved significant.

Gloucester, whose build-up had been overshadowed by speculation surrounding the Kingsholm futures of star players Jason Little and Ian Jones, relished their underdog status.

Both Little and Jones, southern hemisphere giants of the game, produced block-busting displays, yet in the end, five Simon Mannix penalties proved agonisingly insufficient.

Leicester dug deep into their seemingly limitless resources of spirit and commitment to prevail, securing a victory which keeps alive their bid for an unprecedented trophy treble of Heineken Cup, Premiership title and domestic play-off glory.

LEICESTER 19 Gloucester 15

Copyright 2001
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