Tuilagi strikes to end dismal Leicester run

One flash of inspiration from Manu Tuilagi and the individual flair of Jonny May saved Leicester from another collective failure. Tuilagi celebrated his 100th Leicester appearance by diving over the top of a ruck and touching down under the posts for what proved to be the decisive try while May set up one try and scored another to end Leicester’s run of six straight defeats, their worst sequence since 1975.

Leicester may have got the win but they were certainly not convincing against Irish, who claimed a valuable losing bonus point when Alex Lewington crossed late on against his former club. Leicester lacked structure in the first half and made life more difficult for themselves by kicking penalties to the corner in search of the elusive try bonus point.

“The performance still wasn’t there. The four points were important and we will get a little bit of belief out of that but we need to be better across the board,” said head coach Matt O’Connor. “We didn’t perform anywhere.”

Irish might have claimed their first win since the opening day of the season had Greig Tonks not missed a first-half penalty and struck a post with his conversion attempt of Joe Cokanasiga’s opening try. Instead they had to settle for a losing bonus point, which leaves them nine points adrift of Worcester with time running out to close the gap.

“We are chipping away. We are chipping away with a little rock hammer at the moment. We need to change that to a sledgehammer,” said Irish director of rugby Nick Kennedy. “We’ve got a month away from the Premiership now to work on some things and keep getting better. I keep seeing improvement. We do need to get better quicker, but we are getting better. We are going to come back to the Premiership a stronger unit.”

Lapses of concentration either side of half-time cost Irish dear. May was allowed to attack from the base of a ruck and set up centre Matt Toomua for Leicester’s opening try and May wriggled over himself from close range two minutes after the break.

But so much of Leicester’s play was inaccurate and uncoordinated until Tuilagi took the shortest and most direct route to the line.