“Aye, There’s the Rub!”

The 81,601 at England’s grand temple of rugby at Twickenham were to see a very tight game. No champagne rugby on this day, but it was a very nervy contest. Australian Peter Hewat’s 45 meter drop goal early in the game showed that the Exiles were willing to take the fight to the team from the Midlands.

In spite of the Exiles early lead and ball posession, they could not translate it into points. Delon Armitage missed a couple of long range attempts (He has a cannon for a leg), but his gun sites were off and Hewatt missed what looked to be a sure a penalty that he clanged off the post. Late in the first half, hard running by Steffon Armitage and Chris Hala’ufia put the exiles in a position to score a try. The Tigers, in their desperate defending, gave up 3 penalties close to half time-the third one would send semi final hero Jordan Crane to the sin-bin. The Exiles elected to go for the juglar, and opted for 3 scrums inside the Tigers’ 22, hoping to punch over a try. You have to wonder that if the Exiles had a better kicking game, if they would have opted for the “sure” three points. In spite of all of that, the Tigers withstood the onslaught, and gave up no points before half time.

Somehow, you just knew that London Irish pissed away a great opportunity to gain the upper hand, and with a team like Leicester, not unlike Munster or Toulouse, just seems to find a way to win, even when they did not bring their A game on the day.

When Crane got back from the sin bin in the second half, he was able to get the ball deep in Exiles territory, and bull and stretch his way for a try…

Leicester’s French scrum half, Julien Dupuy, converted the try in what will be his next-to-last game with the Tigers, before he goes back to France to play with Stade Français next season. A 10-6 game meant it was still not out of reach for Irish, who added a LONG penalty from Delon Armitage to make the game 10-9, but Leicester was able to get possession of the ball in the last few minutes, and they made no mistakes in holding on for the win, and the trophy. The Tigers can close out the season with a possible double when they take on Leinster in the Heineken Cup final in Edinburgh this coming weekend. They have shown that they can win in style, like they did against Bath in the Quarterfinals, with heart, like they showed in that epic semi-final win against Cardiff, and they showed that they can win ugly, like they did at Twickenham. Love or hate them, the team from the Midlands just seems to know how to come up big and hold their nerve in the big game.