A capacity 12,000 crowd in a cauldron of an atmosphere in southern France witnessed an amazing Tigers victory this evening.

Leicester kept up their 100% record in this seasons Heineken Cup with an amazing late comeback which spoke volumes for the resolve of this great bunch of players.

With 20 minutes left Tigers trailed in a tight match by twelve points and Perpignan with the upper hand in terms of territory and crowd advantage, as the home supporters rallied their troops with flares and firecrackers creating a pressure cooker of an atmosphere.

Tim Stimpson stepped up for a penalty shot at goal to cut the deficit to nine. Seven minutes later Steve Booth was once more the man for the occasion as he carved an opening and blazed his way to the try line. Stimo's conversion made it 25-27.

Nine minutes from time Leicester hit the front for the first time in the match since the opening score, when Stimo with nerves of steel withstood a barrage of hoots and whistles to smack over his 6th penalty goal of the evening.

Even then the drama was still to play out as Thierry Lacroix struck back with his ninth penalty shot of the match to take Perpignan 30-28 ahead. Tim replied with just a minute of normal time left as his ice cold nerves held firm once more with a superb penalty from 40 metres.



There was still time for Thierry Lacroix to fail with two injury time attempts to win the match from long range - Lacroix's only two errors of the game.

What a match, what an outcome, what a team!

Action Sequence:
2' Stimpson (Pen) 3-0
3' Lacroix (Pen) 3-3
7' Lacroix (Pen) 3-6
10' (Stimpson missed pen)
20' Lacroix (Drop) 3-9
21' (Stimpson missed pen)
24' Stimpson (Pen) 6-9
26' (Stimpson missed pen)
27' Goode (Drop) 9-9
29' Lacroix (Pen) 9-12
31' Stimpson (Pen) 12-12
38' Lacroix (Pen) 12-15
40' Stimpson (Pen) 15-15
42' Lacroix (Pen) 15-18
Half-time
43' Lacroix (Pen) 15-21
51' Lacroix (Pen) 15-24
55' Lacroix (Pen) 15-27
59' Stimpson (Pen) 18-27
66' Booth (Try) & Stimpson (Conv) 25-27
71' Stimpson (Pen) 28-27
74' Lacroix (Pen) 28-30
77' (Lacroix missed drop)
79' Stimpson (Pen) 31-28
82' (Lacroix missed pen)
86' (Lacroix missed pen)
Full-time

Perpignan: Frederic Cermeno (Jean-Marc Souverbie 68); Farid Sid, Didier Plana, Pascal Giordani (Jose Orengo 34-40, 75), Robbie MacDonald; Thierry Lacroix, Jacques Basset; Renaud Peillard, Michel Konieckiewicz (Marc Dal Maso 50), Stephane De Besombes; Jerome Thion, John Daniell (Rimas Alvarez Kairelis 57); Sylvian Deroux (capt), Raphael Jechoux (Bernard Goutta 50), Phil Murphy. Replacements (not used): Julio Garcia, Ludovic Loustau.

Referee: G de Santis (Italy)