Leicester hammered out a warning to the rest of their title rivals with their five-try destruction of Leeds. The Tigers slipped up on the opening day of the season away to Sale, but they were straight back into a formidable old routine.
Veteran former England stars Neil Back and Martin Johnson led the way in a pack who squeezed the life out of their opponents. Johnson scored a rare try, with Seru Rabeni, on his debut, Harry Ellis and Henry Tuilagi also touching down. Leicester were awarded a penalty try in the second half and Andy Goode added 17 points with an assured kicking display.
All Leeds could muster was an opportunist score from wing Tom Biggs, a last-minute consolation from Jon Dunbar and 10 points from the boot of Gordon Ross.
Johnson and co dominated at the scrum and line-out, with Back outstanding and playing more like a teenager than a 35-year-old.
Goode gave the home team the perfect start by opening the scoring from five metres inside his own half after two minutes and was successful with a simple 27th-minute effort as well as converting both first-half tries.
Johnson led from the front with the first, barging through a tackle in the 12th minute after a sustained drive into the right corner by the Leicester pack.
Wing Rabeni was perfectly placed to grab a try just before the interval after a break by Geordan Murphy had shredded the Leeds defence. All Leeds had to show for their efforts were a Ross penalty in first-half injury time and a share of the spoils in an early punch-up between the front rows.
They did scramble back into the game when Biggs scored a superb opportunist effort three minutes into the second half, but hopes of a revival disappeared when referee Wayne Barnes sent lock Chris Murphy to the sin-bin in the 53rd minute.
LEICESTER: Murphy; Rabeni, Smith (A Tuilagi 54), Gibson, Healey; Goode (Broadfoot 74), Ellis; Rowntree (Morris 61), Chuter (Buckland 74), White, M Johnson, L Deacon, B Deacon (H Tuilagi 61), Back, Corry.
LEEDS: Cardey; Rees, Bell, Snyman, Biggs (Albanese 64); Ross, Dickens (McMillan 72); Cusack, Regan, Kerr, Murphy, Palmer, Uys (Dunbar 65), Parks, Popham.
You've read the piece, now have your say. Email your comments, be as frank as you like, we can take it, to sport.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk, or mail the Observer direct at sport@observer.co.uk
Referee: W Barnes.
