Hungry Tigers maul Blues

Leicester crushed Cardiff to set up a Pool Four showdown with Munster next Saturday.

Leicester set up a Pool Four showdown with Munster at Thomond Park next Saturday with a crushing 34-0 victory over Cardiff Blues at Welford Road.

The Tigers claimed the bonus point with four tries in the first half in an impressive display that must boost their confidence as they bid to become the first side to win at Munster in the competition.

If anything they may feel that this run-out was a little too one-sided as a prelude to the intensity of Thomond Park, but a bonus-point win and no injuries was really all the Tigers could ask from the afternoon.

Leicester raced out of the traps and as good as settled the contest with early tries from  Alesana Tuilagi, Dan Hipkiss and Daryl Gibson, before winger Seru Rabeni secured the bonus point to the eminent staisfaction of a 16,000 sellout crowd at Welford Road.

There were further tries after the break for England forwards Lewis Moody and Martin Corry, the former England skipper thundering over unopposed from 20 yards out.

The Tigers were two tries to the good inside five minutes as Geordan Murphy's marvellous inside pass gifted a try to Tuilagi and after Cardiff failed to deal with the re-start, Hipkiss charged in from all of 50 metres.

The third try arrived after just 11 minutes courtesy of a neat piece of opportunism from Gibson.

The Blues were shell-shocked and could come up with little in reply and the rest of the half was really just a matter of waiting for the crucial fourth try to arrive.

It duly did nine minutes from the break as forward pressure set up the chance for Rabeni to arrive on the angle and cut the cover defence to pieces.

Leicester boss Pat Howard gave key men a break in the second half as he turned his attention to next week's Titanic clash against the champions.

Cardiff could probably have kept the score at 24-0 but Scott Morgan's yellow card for stamping just past the hour mark perompted another Leicester surge.

A trademark drive from the Tigers pack set up Moody's try beore Corry took advantage of a defence that was just about out on its feet.