Leicester Tigers were dealt with in no uncertain terms as Ulster handed them a hefty 41-7 blow at Ravenhill on Friday night. It was the largest points total Leicester had conceded in 15 seasons of European rugby, and the biggest margin of defeat too.

Ulster came out firing as their vocal home crowd backed them all the way against a powerhouse side that in the past wouldn't have struggled to such an extent. This time, they were no match for Ulster who have effectively knocked the Tigers out of the competition.

"We are out. We will be third in our group. We are done," said Leicester's Richard Cockerill. "You don't want to be conceding 40 points. They are a good side, and we didn't cope with it. We never got on the front foot enough, and when we did, they worked very hard on the ball and we couldn't cope with their intensity. "We needed to come here and get a result, and we thought we could do that. The side we had out was good enough to put up a better show than that," he added. On the flipside Ulster's skipper Johann Muller was full of praise for his troops. "That was definitely one of our best performances in terms of taking our chances and the passion we showed. But it doesn't mean anything unless we get some points in Clermont [next week]. We have to make sure we do what we have to do," he said. Andrew Trimble scored twice and South African Ruan Pienaar, who has just extended his contract, kicked five penalties and three conversions. Craig Gilroy scored with about ten minutes left, then speedy number nine Paul Marshall exploited a huge gap to drive the nail into the Leicester coffin.

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