London Irish 25 Leicester 28: Goode greatness denies Irish the rub of the green

Leicester stumbled to their fifth win in six visits to the Madejski Stadium on the back of some charitable refereeing and the penalty successes of their fly-half Andy Goode yesterday.

Goode's 23 points from seven penalties and a conversion edged out the kicking challenge of his opposite number, Barry Everitt, who gained 20 points, and made him the fifth player in the Premiership to pass 1,000 points. The others are Johnny Wilkinson, Tim Stimpson, Paul Grayson - and Everitt.

Irish knew that Goode was a threat but thought that his menace might be reduced in what their coach, Brian Smith, called "pretty slippery dangerous conditions." The Irish were wrong, with Goode missing just two kicks and making two penalties from his own half, the longest from 57 metres.

On top of that Goode made a critical corner tackle on the wing Topsy Ojo in the last significant move of the game and it was no surprise that Leicester's coach, Pat Howard, should make the case for his being one of three fly-halves for England to choose from for the Six Nations.

"When he is putting his case for England, he has a range of 57 metres," Howard said. "He can kick the ball a long way and he has worked on his defence."

This was Leicester's second away win in the Premiership in 12 months and followed a defeat at Bristol. Though they fell behind by 10-6 after 22 minutes when Graham Rowntree had been sent to the sin-bin and Paul Gustard, one of their former players, came storming in for a try from 40m, they did not trail again.

When Michael Horak saw yellow after 26 minutes Austin Healey produced Leicester's only try. Healey cut across field to link with Geordan Murphy and then restart the attack which led to Delon Armitage being trapped near his line and the Tigers full-back Sam Vesty scoring at the posts.

Irish frustration mounted in the second half. Everitt chipped away as best he could but Martin Corry kept the Leicester forwards focused. Everitt closed the gap to three points in the fourth minute of stoppage time after Horak and Rod Penney set up Goode's tackle on Ojo.

"It seemed like every time there was a decision it seemed to go against us," said Smith. "We felt we might have had a better rub of the green."

London Irish: Try Gustard; Conversion Everitt; Penalties Everitt 4; Drop goals Everitt 2. Leicester: Try Vesty; Conversion Goode; Penalties Goode 7.

London Irish: M Horak; D Armitage, R Penney, N Mordt, T Ojo; B Everitt, P Hodgson; N Hatley, D Coetzee, F Rautenbach, R Casey (capt), K Roche, P Gustard, D Danaher (P Murphy, 53), J Leguizamon.

Leicester: S Vesty; L Lloyd, O Smith, D Hipkiss (T Varndell, 20), G Murphy; A Goode, A Healey (H Ellis, 63); G Rowntree, G Chuter, J White, L Deacon (L Cullen, 66), B Kay, B Deacon (L Abraham, 40), S Jennings (J Buckland, 80), M Corry(capt).

Referee: D Pearson (Northumberland).