Leinster are Heineken Cup Champions

First-time champions

He was also linking quite effectively with O’Driscoll, who opened the scoring with a smartly-taken drop goal from right in from right in front of the posts.

Dupuy replied with a penalty for Leicester but there was no denying that The Tigers were struggling.

Their line-out was proving surprisingly vulnerable and Leinster were more than holding their own in the scrum, an area in which many had tipped Leicester to dominate.

Elsom was proving predictably difficult for Leicester to contain, too.

It was Sexton, though, who was running the show and it was he who deservedly edged Leinster back in front with a quite magnificent drop goal from halfway.

Moments later, he attacked the gain-line and off-loaded beautifully into the path of Gordon D’Arcy. The Ireland centre appeared to have generated sufficient momentum to carry him over the line but he was held up - literally - by a combination of  Craig Newby and Woods as he attempted to ground the ball.

Leinster would not relent, though, and Sexton stroked over a penalty moments later to extend his side’s advantage to six.

Things were beginning to look a little ominous for Leicester. Indeed, they looked tired, which would have hardly been a surprise given their ridiculously taxing run of fixtures over the past four weeks.

However, this is a side blessed with a quite remarkable ability for grinding out victories in difficult circumstances and that is what they set about trying to do.

All they needed was a spark and they got one in the form of a quite stunning break from Dan Hipkiss, one which took the centre from inside his own 22 to within five meters of the Leinster line.

It lifted The Tigers and the pressure on the Leinster line which followed eventually prompted a panicked Stan Wright from taking Sam Vesty out off the ball as the Tigers fly-half attempted to get his hands on an off-load from Dupuy.

The result was a yellow card for Wright and Leicester, unsurprisingly, took advantage.

Dupuy kicked things off by converting the resulting penalty and then, just seconds before half time, Woods powered through Isa Nacewa and D'Arcy to score after an excellent show-and-go from Vesty had created an opening.

French scrum-half Dupuy converted before adding another penalty shortly after the interval and Leicester had gone from six points down to four points up.

The impetus, it seemed, was not with The Tigers, who were bidding to win their third Heineken Cup.

However, when Wright returned so too did Leinster’s confidence, and indeed their dominance.

Elsom proved key in this regard, rousing the men in blue and navy with a barnstorming run in the 45th minute which was remarkably similar in its effect to Hipkiss’ break in the first half.

Indeed, just moments later Heaslip, with the aid of the supporting Jennings, managed to barge his way over. Sexton's subsequent conversion meant that the scores were tied.

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Nster.com