Glasgow put in their place by Stimpson

Tim Stimpson obliterated the memory of Leicester's worst European nightmare yesterday, with seven goals and a poacher's try enough to sabotage Glasgow's attempt at springing another Scottish upset.

Inspired by the example of what Edinburgh had done at Northampton 24 hours earlier in shoving the Heineken Cup holders to the brink of elimination, Scotland's other 'super district' turned out to be nothing of the sort as the English champions took a decisive step towards the last eight. The manner in which they claimed victory would hardly have terrified the rest of Europe but, considering the pig's ear they made of the same tie in the same stadium last season, the Tigers dashed back across the border very grateful for any old away win.

Glasgow's canny choice of venue, a long way out of town in the rural splendour surrounding McDiarmid Park on the outskirts of Perth, brought Leicester back to the scene of an accident last Christmas which left them in such a bad way that they missed qualification for the knock-out finals. Tommy Hayes, who contributed 20 points towards their famous 30-17 win, might easily have ended up with another 20 but for an early trio of missed penalties, followed by Glasgow's headless decision to run three more. Two of those were in front of the posts and it conspired to let Leicester off lightly before Stimpson eased any

lingering English fears by putting the opposition out of their misery. He did so in the space of two minutes towards the end of the game, landing a monstrous penalty from fully 60 yards. No sooner had Stimpson's booming, downwind blow restored Leicester's 10-point advantage than England's out-of-favour full back sealed victory with the most opportunist of tries.

Leon Lloyd, forced into a tight spot close to the left-hand corner, took the only option open to him, a chip-in goal which one of three Glasgow defenders ought to have touched down. Instead, Stimpson launched himself horizontally to beat them all to it, before dusting himself down to send the conversion curling over from a narrow angle.

By the end of a match which never even came close to catching fire, Leicester had been hit with 20 penalties by Didier Mene as well as two yellow cards, the French referee dispatching hooker Dorian West and substitute flanker Lewis Moody to the sin-bin. Not that there was any danger of the Tigers allowing lightning to strike twice in the same place. Glasgow, 17-3 down after Pat Howard supplied the scoring passes for Lloyd and Neil Back to cross within the first half hour, were never good enough to deliver any bolts from the blue. Leicester, undone last year according to Dean Richards by their 'blase' approach, left their manager with no complaints this time about their attitude.