Tigers fall to Carter's boot

Dan Carter marked his Perpignan debut with 16 points in a 26-20 Heineken Cup victory over Leicester Tigers.

The New Zealand fly-half, in his first appearance of a lucrative seven-month sabbatical from All Blacks duty in the south of France, landed four penalties and two conversions.

In addition to Carter's haul, blindside flanker Gerrie Britz scored two tries to ensure Perpignan got the win they needed to keep their quarter-final hopes alive.

Leicester, who beat the same opponents on home turf last weekend, scored a try in each half through Tom Croft and Scott Hamilton, while Toby Flood kicked 10 points.

Exchange

After Flood drew first blood for the visitors with an early penalty, Carter replied in kind with his first points for his new club on 10 minutes.

Perpignan took the lead with a fine try four minutes later. Britz evaded a weak tackle by Leicester full-back Geordan Murphy to round off a flowing move that was started by a break from scrum-half Nicolas Durand.

Carter banked the conversion, added another three points on 24 minutes - awarded for a high tackle on Adrien Plante by Leicester winger Hamilton - and then landed his third penalty in the 35th minute to leave Leicester staring down the barrel of a 13-point deficit.

But the visitors' challenge was revived with flanker Croft's well worked try just prior to the interval. Lock Ben Kay's charge set up a ruck in prime attacking position and scrum-half Julien Dupuy's decision to direct the attack to the blindside paid handsome dividend.

The ball was moved swiftly through three pairs of hands to Croft, lurking out on the right wing, for a simple finish. Flood was on target with the conversion to bring his side back within a converted try at 16-10 down.

Britz brace

Carter missed for the first time with a penalty attempt to bring the first half to a close, but Perpignan struck again six minutes after the restart when number eight Damien Chouly charged down Dupuy's attempted clearance kick at the base of ruck close to his own line.

The ball bounced kindly to Britz who gratefully accepted the gift of his second try. Carter's conversion padded the lead to 23-10.

Leicester got on the comeback trail with Flood's second penalty in the 55th minute and moved back within three points with Hamilton's try 14 minutes from time.

The New Zealand-born winger, a former Canterbury and All Blacks team-mate of Carter, managed to twist around to get the ball down despite crossing the whitewash while turned on his back. The video referee confirmed the validity of the grounding and Flood converted to set-up a potential grandstand finale.

It never materialised, Carter's fourth penalty in the 76th minute calmed any nerves in the home ranks and they held out for the victory with little alarm, leaving Leicester to be content with a losing bonus point.

The result puts the Tigers level on 15 points with the Ospreys at the top of Pool Three. Perpignan are in third spot with nine points and still in contention to progress.