Tigers took their try-count for the season to the 50 mark with first-half scores from Toby Flood and Julian Salvi, but had to wait until the hour for the third from Manu Tuilagi. Then Tom Croft snatched a bonus point and a 41-32 victory with a score in the final play at the Madejski Stadium.
Director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: “The win was the most important thing, we needed to keep our run going and stay in the frame in the top four.
“We got a slice of luck at the end when they were chasing the win and we picked up loose ball to go in to score for the bonus point, but it’s been a hard week and we’ll take the five points.
“We got on top, scored two good tries and you’re thinking we can go on from there. But Irish are very dangerous if you don’t have control and they came back at us. The boys kept playing and kept doing what they do well and in the end they did enough to get the win, but it was very tight.”
Tigers welcomed back six players from the Six Nations, with Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Manu Tuilagi and Ben Youngs in the starting line-up, with Croft and Martin Castrogiovanni joining the action as second-half replacements.
“The guys have come back in good spirits and in decent shape, and they just want to get back out there and play,” said Cockerill.
“We’ve been without some of those players for large parts of the season but now we’ve got everyone available, we’ve got a very strong squad and we want to use them and keep them fresh for the run-in.”
That run-in continues with a home game against Worcester Warriors this Friday (7.45pm). Tickets are available now.
