Lloyd gets balance right for Leicester

pean final against Brive in favour of Rory Under-wood, despite having kept the old England flier grounded during the semi- final against Toulouse.

In what became a spectacular mis-match with the French holders running riot, Lloyd sat on the bench for all but the last seven minutes, by which time Leicester were probably too dizzy to notice.

This time their wing-cum-centre will be in the thick of it from the outset, satisfied that he has learned to manage the balancing act between going to the edge without toppling over.

'I'm quite a feisty player but I have calmed down,' he said. 'I felt my game suffered earlier in the season from tempering my aggressive streak. Now I think I've got the balance right. That incident in Pretoria did take the shine off my first cap.'

It would not have been his fault had more than the shine been taken off his decisive try - but the try itself. Its creation owed as much to a puzzling decision from French referee Joel Dume as it did to Tim Stimpson's counterattack and Lloyd's incisive finish.

For the uninitiated long baffled by the complexities of rugby law, here was an example to baffle even the most enlightened, both at Vicarage Road and among the television audience.

A Leicester player, Graham

Four years earlier, the 19-year-old had been 'absolutely devastated' to find himself dropped for Leicester's first Euro- Decisive moment: Lloyd touches down under the posts for Leicester's vital try against Gloucester Picture: JASON GREEN

Rowntree, knocks- on in the opposing 25, Dume signals the offence, plays advantage for Gloucester and ends up some seconds later awarding Leicester their match-winning try. Some advantage.

Exactly how long advantage should be played without any being gained is left to the discretion of the referee. In this case, Gloucester shovelled Rowntree's loose ball out to their teenaged wing James Simpson-Daniel, who sought to relieve the pressure with a hoof to touch.

The moment the ball disappeared down Stimpson' s throat was surely the moment when Dume would bring them back for the scrum. Instead, he let the game go and the rest, as they say, is history. Stimpson seized his opportunity perfectly, shooting down a gap on the right and, when that closed, swerving inside and drawing four Gloucester defenders before unleashing Lloyd to put Leicester seven points clear, just enough to withstand Simon Mannix's volley of five penalties.

Stimpson will not be holding his breath but as a last-ditch reminder to the Lions he could not have done more.

England might not have forgiven him his lapses on the 1998 Australia tour but, given the paucity of full back candidates beyond Iain Balshaw and Matt Perry, Stimpson as an attacking force armed with long-range goalkicking deserves serious consideration. Had he not been on top of his game on a day when too many colleagues were knocked off theirs, Leicester would never have made it.

They will plough on in the knowledge that their defence is the best in the business but know they must now take on the whole of France in the final at the Parc des Princes.

The Stade Francais ground is all of a Diego Dominguez drop goal away but this time Leicester will not repeat the mistakes made before the last final when, according to scrum half Austin Healey, they were 'too confident and complacent because the management got it wrong'.