It is to the immense credit of Bourgoin that, had they continued as they started, they would have lost this game by something like 160 points. They came here with a reputation for resilience in Europe on a par with the points they had accumulated in Pool 4 this season - zero. So, a party hat off to them for hanging on in there.
It took Lewis Moody all of 29 seconds to score the opening try, escaping along the touchline and rounding full-back Florian Denos. This followed a quite stunning catch by Sam Vesty, running forward at full pelt and then leaping for a high ball. Up to this point - about 18 seconds - Bourgoin had been up for the fight. Vesty might have done for them with his early display of appetite.
A few more moments passed before Andy Goode banged over the conversion from the touchline and then a couple of minutes, before the same kicker landed a penalty. After five minutes Bourgoin were staring at a three-figure hammering.
Sensing that this was not going to be the most arduous ordeal of the season, the Tigers pressed the entertainment button. There would be catches to rival Vesty's from Harry Ellis and Leon Lloyd, cheek galore from Geordan Murphy and a hat-trick for Moody.
Skills and a sense of adventure are obviously not absent from the English game. What is lacking is the confidence and encouragement to use them in circumstances more pressurised than this. Leicester put themselves under greater strain in training than they felt from the French.
Mike Prendergast made a couple of breaks for the visitors and... and that was about it. They were hammered at the scrum and turned over in the loose and were prone to kick straight back to their opponents what little ball they won .
In the French championship Bourgoin are respected for the ferocity of their forwards and a home record that is the envy of the rest of the Top 14. It is fair to say that they save themselves for the pleasures of this domestic fare. The delights of Europe appear as alien to them as to Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Still, as Leicester coach, Pat Howard, said afterwards, there was a game that had yet to be won, concentration to be kept, points to be accumulated. On all fronts, he had reason then to be satisfied. Inclined to put on a show, Leicester might have lost their rhythm if not the plot. As it was, and apart from the odd lapse into over-exuberance, they plugged away at the basics and only then cut loose.
Moody was not just the try-finisher, but also the supplier, feeding Ellis up the blindside. The tight forwards also did their preparation work, making a mess of a Bourgoin scrum near the French line, allowing Ellis to spoil Prendergast's pass and then Shane Jennings to pick up the scraps.
Sebastien Laloo, on the other hand, witnessed his own basic skills desert him. On the end of another pass deep in his own in-goal, he dropped it. From the five-metre scrum that followed and in accordance with one of those training-field ploys you rehearse just on the off-chance that one day you might find yourself a bit less stressed than usual, the Leicester backs climbed into a 12-man maul. Daryl Gibson touched down.
More of the same in the second half. Basics and adventure in harmony on one side; inefficiency and half-heartedness on the other. This was a poor game and none of it was of Leicester's making except that they were patently too strong.
That is the trouble with this grouping of teams. It is the province of Leicester and Munster, with the Cardiff Blues briefly making a contribution. Even in a four-team group you can have two divisions. Bourgoin are in the second mini-division. We must wait for Munster-Leicester in the new year to bring Heineken Pool 4 back to life.
Welford Road 16,815
Leicester: Vesty (Varndell 48); G Murphy, Hipkiss (J Murphy 64), Gibson, Lloyd; Goode, Ellis (Bemand 44); Moreno, Buckland, Castrogiovanni (White 48), L Deacon (Hamilton 56), Kay, Moody (B Deacon 60), Jennings, Corry (capt) Tries Moody 3, Ellis, Jennings 2, Gibson, Varndell Cons Goode 7 Pen Goode
Bourgoin: Denos; Davis, Bousses, Coetzee (Nicolas 58), Coux; Laloo, Prendergast (Parra 58); Khinchagishvili , Cabello (Vigneaux ht), Cardinali (Sourgens ht), Fevre, Del-Fava, Frier (capt; Diotallevi 35; Williams 68), Rennie, Monzeglio Pen Lalo Referee: A Rolland (Ireland)
