Leicester reached their fifth Heineken Cup final after the tournament's first penalty shoot-out. The No8 Jordan Crane landed the decisive kick for the Tigers after the wing Tom James had blown the chance to take the Blues into their first final by blasting his 22-metre penalty wide.
Both sides landed their first three kicks before Ceri Sweeney took the Blues 4–3 ahead. Johne Murphy missed for the Tigers, but James's kick then drifted left and Scott Hamilton took the shoot-out into sudden death. It got down to the forwards, and after Martyn Williams missed, Crane took Leicester through. Only typesetters will dread the prospect of a Leinster v Leicester final at Murrayfield on May 23.
Leicester were cruising into the final as they led 26–12 with two minutes of normal time to go. They had outplayed the Blues in most areas, but just as the Tigers this season have time and again risen from their death bed breathing fire, so the Blues mounted a storming finish to take the match into extra-time.
Neither period of extra-time yielded a point. Johne Murphy was just wide with a long-range drop-goal attempt as both heavy-legged sides played for position and took little in the way of risk. The tournament's first penalty shoot-out beckoned as Leicester manoeuvred the replaced scrum-half Julien Dupuy back on, the centre Dan Hipkiss having specks of blood in his hair, and the Blues brought on the former Wales fly-half Ceri Sweeney.
The first 78 minutes had shown little hint of the twist to come. Leicester were worth more than their 13–12 interval lead, surprising the Blues with the movement off the ball and desire to spread the ball wide. They scored a sumptuous try through Scott Hamilton and would have had another through the menacing Geordan Murphy but for an excellent tackle by Maama Molitika.
That the Blues led 3–0 at the end of the opening quarter said more about the kicking tribulations suffered by Dupuy than the home side's superiority. Ben Blair gave the Welsh region the lead with a 30-yard penalty after Tom Croft had failed to roll away after a tackle, after Dupuy had missed the first of three penalty attempts in 15 minutes.
It had been some tackle by Croft. The Blues worked a lineout routine near the Tigers' 22, throwing long to Gethin Jenkins, who flicked an inside pass to Leigh Halfpenny. The Lions wing wrong-footed Johne Murphy and galloped towards the line. A try looked certain but Croft, who was not deemed good enough by the Lions, shoved Halfpenny to the ground five yards out.
That was the nearest the Blues got to the Leicester line in the opening period. Leicester's dominance was reflected in Hamilton's 25th-minute try: the former New Zealand wing was freed by Flood's subtle pass out of the back of his hand, cut a clever angle and stepped away from another former Crusader, Blair. Dupuy converted from under the posts and soon after that landed a penalty from 40 yards after Croft had been felled by a Faao Filise high tackle. Leicester were cutting through at will and the Blues were feeling the early loss of their captain, Paul Tito, with a knee injury, especially in the lineout.
The atmosphere, with 44,200 in the crowd, was not as intense as it had been at Croke Park the previous day, and neither was the action as raw-boned. Leicester had the edge in terms of quality, but the Blues dug in stoically and regained the lead with two long-range penalties from Halfpenny and a 35-yard effort from Blair.
Halfpenny's second penalty came after Leicester were blown for being in front of the kicker, Flood, at a restart. Flood told the referee, Alain Rolland, what he thought of the decision and a scrum turned into three points.
Having received charity, the Blues turned provider. The scrum-half Richie Rees rashly took a quick throw-in in his own 22 and succeeded only in putting his fly-half, Nicky Robinson, under severe pressure as three tacklers pinned him to the ground. The outside-half was penalised for not releasing and Dupuy put Leicester back into the lead as the opening period went into stoppage time.
Rolland had been severe at the breakdown, unlike Nigel Owens in Dublin the previous day, and there was less flow to the game than the approach of both sets of backs promised. Leicester had more power and polish, though, and they hounded the Blues into errors, cutting down Robinson's options and shredding the outside-half's nerves. They scored a fine try five minutes after the restart.
Dupuy sniped, Flood supported and Geordan Murphy ran on to his outside-half's pass to touch down under the posts. Flood later limped off, having shown through his quick-wittedness and inventiveness the difference between Leicester this season and last.
Two more Dupuy penalties gave Leicester a 26–12 lead. They lost the former All Black flanker Craig Newby to the sin-bin after 64 minutes, after he sabotaged a rare Blues attack, and the Tigers were down to 13 men eight minutes later when Geordan Murphy saw yellow for a deliberate knock-on.
Even then, though, Leicester looked like holding out until a mad 90 seconds. Newby had just returned to the field when Jamie Roberts, who had been anonymous most of the afternoon, took advantage of space on the outside with two minutes of normal time to go.
It looked a mere consolation but Roberts then burst away from his own 22 from the restart, shrugged off three tacklers and released James. The wing had 70 yards to cover, but once he had rounded Jordan Crane, there was only one outcome and another Blair touchline conversion took the game into extra-time.
