Heineken Cup Semi Finals 2007
In an epic encounter, Leicester Tigers beat Stade Francais by the narrowest of margins to edge through to the Semi Finals of the Heineken Cup, to be played against Llanelli at the dreaded Walkers Stadium.
As you entered the stadium you were greeted by the sight of thousands of flags all lined up in the seats, you knew that it was going to be a good game. And it didnt disappoint. After just 5 minutes, constant pressure on the line opened a hole through which Seru Rabeni got through and scored. Goode missed the tough conversion. Any thoughts of a rout over the french team where misplaced, as they replied immediately with a penalty to make it 5-3 to Tigers. Penalties were traded, but it was Stade who scored next after some weak tackling by Leicester allowed their full-back into the corner. The half time score was 11 all.
The second half was equally enthralling, with Stade slightly dominating in the second half, and after more penalties, the score was 17-14 to Stade. However, the winger Tom Varndell was put in by Dan Hipkiss, and scored under the posts to give Goode the simplists of conversions to make it 21-20 to Tigers. The last 5 minutes Stade pounded on Tigers defence, and had to attempt 3 drop goals, all of which were missed or charged down. The final whistle went and a huge roar from the record crowd at Tigers of over 17,000 was of both relief and joy.
