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Europe20 | Tigers battle in pool stages

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The 2020/21 season marks the 20th anniversary of Leicester Tigers’ first European title win and the club is hosting a special evening on May 19 to commemorate the occasion. 

As part of the build-up, Tigers will be sharing archive footage, interviews with former players and looking back at the road to victory.

Hosted in partnership with Switch the Play Foundation, a charity co-founded by Tigers European Cup hero Leon Lloyd which supports all sportspeople in transition into life outside of sport, further details of the evening can be found at the link below. 

The story so far…

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Tigers were sitting second in the Premiership table going into the opening month of European fixtures at the start of October 2000, uncharacteristically on the back of a loss to Bristol and a 17-17 draw against Sale Sharks. 

Leicester hit the road running however, as more than 12,000 supporters watched them put 46 points on French visitors Pau in the opening game in Pool 6.

A 33-21 away win over Glasgow Caledonians followed to give Tigers maximum points from their opening games, but it wasn’t all plan sailing from there.

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An 18-11 loss to Welsh outfit Pontypridd in front of a 6,500 Sardis Road crowd made for an interesting return match eight days later.

Almost 14,000 were at Welford Road as the metronomic boot of Tim Stimpson and a try from Austin Healey brought home a 27-19 win which put Tigers in top spot with just two pool fixtures to come during January. 

Pau, who were rivals for top spot in the pool, welcomed Leicester to the Stade du Hameau in the south of France in a game that could see them top the Pool. 

With just over 7,000 fans in attendance, it was the flanker Neil Back who scored the game’s only try in the 18th minute, with Tim Stimpson adding his usual points from the tee. Fly-half Andy Goode also added two drop goals in the 20-3 win.

On this day…January 20, 2001

With qualification secured, the final fixture in Pool 6 of the Heineken European Cup saw Tigers host Glasgow Caledonians, fielding the following line-up:

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15 Tim Stimpson
14 Geordan Murphy
13 Ollie Smith
12 Pat Howard
11 Winston Stanley
10 Andy Goode
9 Jamie Hamilton 
1 Perry Freshwater
2 Dorian West
3 Darren Garforth
4 Louis Deacon
5 Ben Kay
6 Will Johnson
7 Lewis Moody
8 Martin Corry

In a high-scoring match, Tigers scored two tries in the first half thanks to skipper Dorian West and scrum-half Jamie Hamilton in front of a 12,000 crowd. Two more scorers added their mark on the match as centre Ollie Smith went over in the 55th minute and replacement hooker Richard Cockerill added a final flourish at the stroke of full-time. 

Tigers ran out to win 41-26 with Tim Stimpson playing his role from the tee to top Pool 6 and earn a place as second seeds in the draw for the quarter-finals taking place just a week later. 

Next up for Tigers….

Join us on January 28 as we relive the quarter-final clash against Swansea in a game which put Tigers just one win away from a place in the Final.