Leicester get back on track

European Cup Round-upLeicester boss Dean Richards expressed his satisfaction last night after Leicester got their Heineken Cup campaign up and running with a comfortable victory over the Gwent Dragons at Welford Road.

The Tigers, beaten by Stade Francais in Paris last weekend, triumphed 34-3, scoring four tries to clinch an important winning bonus point.

And there is now just one point separating all four sides in Pool One, ahead of the Christmas break in European action.

Wings Ollie Smith (two) and Neil Baxter scored three of Leicester's tries, while the other was a 90-metre interception effort by centre Leon Lloyd.

Fly-half Ramiro Pez kicked 14 points, while the Dragons could only manage a Percy Montgomery penalty in reply.

"In terms of the 80 minutes, I thought that we played very, very well," said rugby director Richards, whose team had already suffered four home defeats in league and cup competition this term.

Dragons coach Mike Ruddock admitted that this team faced an uphill struggle once they had conceded a fourth-minute try to Baxter following a Ben Breeze fumble in defence.

"We didn't want to concede an early try, but we did, and we were chasing the game after that," said Ruddock.

Llanelli's Wales stand-off Stephen Jones shrugged off his man-of-the-match display to divert the plaudits to his forwards.

Jones was given the award after a stirring display as the visitors ended Borders' hopes of a place in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup with a 41-10 victory at Netherdale.

Jones was on form with the boot as the Scarlets secured the important bonus point.

But despite his fine showing Jones paid tribute to the forwards. He insisted: "It was a tremendous team effort, but it was the big guys up front who laid the platform. They were outstanding."

"We are delighted with the result, but it is far too early to talk about us being group winners.

For Borders there will be no further Heineken Cup involvement this season and they only have themselves to blame.

Frustrated Borders supremo Tony Gilbert admitted his team were "not mentally tough enough" to stand up to a side as strong and experienced as Llanelli.

Gilbert said: "Once they got hold of us, they just didn't let us off the hook. We thought we were still in with a shout at half-time after Gregor Townsend's try, but we didn't have the ability to change things round when it mattered. We were reduced to living off scraps and our lack of experience shone through."