Premiership: London Irish 22-25 Leicester Tigers

Harry Potter scored Leicester Tigers' only second-half try

Leicester Tigers hung on for a tense win at London Irish to move up to fifth in the Premiership table.

Two quick tries from Tom Pearson and Joe Powell put Irish ahead after Olly Cracknell gave Tigers the ideal start.

A Paddy Jackson penalty gave the Exiles a 17-14 lead at the break after Jasper Wiese grabbed Leicester's second try.

After Harry Potter and Chandler Cunningham-South traded tries, two Handre Pollard penalties earned title-holders Tigers a hard-fought win.

Tigers first win away from home in five league games catapulted them from eighth and above Irish, who had lost just one of their previous six league games to rise as high as fourth in the table last week.

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The Exiles made just two changes to the team beat Bath last time out, with Mike Willemse and Lovejoy Chawatama coming into the front row.

Eleven-time Premiership champions Leicester named an unchanged starting 15 following their narrow win against leaders Saracens last Sunday, which meant they once again fielded the oldest backline in Premiership history.

A fierce start by the visitors saw Cracknell drive over against his former side for the opening try inside two minutes.

Irish's response was swift and clinical, as Pearson bamboozled Tigers' try-line resistance with a dummy pass before darting over from close range.

Benhard Janse van Rensburg's fine break set Powell up for the game's third try in nine minutes to edge the hosts ahead for the first time, but parity was restored midway through the half when Wiese barged over.

A Jackson penalty after Potter was sin-binned for an intentional knock-on proved enough to ensure the home side held a slender half-time lead.

Leicester, however, remained menacing until the end of the absorbing first half, with a knock-on seeing a Mike Brown effort chalked off, while Cracknell was denied for double movement.

Tigers absorbed Irish pressure early in the second half, before reclaiming the lead through Potter on the left edge after a series of charged down kicks and penalties allowed them to camp close to the line.

An uncharacteristic error from 37-year-old former England full-back Brown over his own line allowed Irish to hit back, with Cunningham-South powering over from the resulting scrum.

Despite relinquishing the lead again, the visitors remained composed, with England scrum-half Ben Youngs and South Africa fly-half Pollard - whose two kicks proved decisive - proving instrumental in helping secure the win at the Gtech Community Stadium.

'A Tigers turning point' - reaction

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"It was a good game with lots of ebbs and flows but they took one more chance than we did.

"We had a period after half-time when we should have scored but they had a similar period just before half-time, so it evened itself out."

"I have no problems with us not taking kickable penalties as the boys have to react to how they see it and realistically we ended one play short of a bonus-point victory.

"We are taking every moment as it comes and it's a journey for us. I'm sure there are plenty more ebbs and flows to come in this league before the season ends."

Interim Tigers head coach Richard Wigglesworth told BBC Radio Leicester:

'Hopefully it's a really good turning point for us [after back-to-back wins].

"I'm just so pleased for the fight we showed and so pleased that we keep turning up. Six days after an incredibly physical encounter that we could have lost, we go into another one we could have lost and we won them both.

"Not so long ago we weren't winning those, so it's nice to get over the line in both.

"We haven't found any form since the start of the season, we have not put wins together to climb the table. It's been a step forward then a step back, so it's nice to put a couple together."

London Irish: Stokes; Cinti, Van Rensburg, Jennings, Loader; Jackson, Powell; Gigena, Willemse, Chawatama, Ratuniyarawa, R Simmons, Gonzalez, Pearson, Rogerson.

Replacements: Creevy, Haffar, Hoskins, Munga, Caulfield, Cunningham-Smith, O'Sulliovan, Joseph.

Leicester Tigers: Brown; Ashton, Scott, Gopperth, Potter; Pollard, Youngs; West, Montoya, Heyes, Martin, Henderson, Leibenberg, Cracknell, Wiese.

Replacements: Clare, van Wyk, Hurd, Wells, Ilione, Whiteley, Atkinson, H Simmons.

Referee: Jack Makepeace.