A resurgent second half display was not enough for London Irish as they went down 35-19 to Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.
The Exiles fought back bravely from being 25-3 down after just 25 minutes, to leave the scores at 28-19 with 15 minutes to go, only for substitute George Chuter to end the contest and any faint hopes of a remarkable comeback, with 10 minutes to go.
Fixtures between these two sides have been extremely close of late, with only 12 points separating them in the past four meetings, but Leicester altered that tend as they put on a fine performance in front of 23,314 supporters, to earn a bonus point win with four well taken tries.
The return of Paul Hodgson at scrum-half was the stand out change to the London Irish side from the 29-14 win over Quins, while Ryan Lamb moved back to his customary role of fly-half and John Rudd and James Buckland came in for Topsy Ojo and David Paice respectively. Tigers welcomed back the international trio of Toby Flood, Martin Castrogiovanni and captain Geordan Murphy.
After a methodical opening, the first blood and the first score went to the home side as Castrogiovanni fed Antony Allen at pace, who slipped the ball to Alesna Tuilagi to surge clear and score under the posts.
Flood added the conversion and his metronymic boot was again on show four minutes later as he knocked over a penalty to give his side a 10-0 lead.
The ferocious nature of the contest soon had its first victim as Ben Woods was forced off with a leg injury and Irish winger Rudd was next in the wars when he felt the full force of a battering run from Lote Tuquri.
Mike Catt was temporarily brought on for Rudd, who emerged from the treatment room seven minutes later with four stitches to his cheek and his side back in the match after Tom Homer had slotted over a penalty.
However the next five minutes were ones to forget for Irish as Leicester turned on the style with a ruthless 15 point spree that left the visitors reeling.
First, Flood knocked over another penalty to restore the 10 point lead, and then came a flood of points as Tuquri burst through the Irish line before feeding Scott Hamilton who had the easiest of tasks to touchdown.
Just two minutes later, it was Castrogiovanni on the score sheet, as he intercepted an Irish pass and charged unopposed to the line. Flood added the conversion to make the score 25-3.
To many in the home crowd, the contest was all but over, yet Toby Booth's side are cut from a more resilient cloth and after Flood and Homer had both missed from the kicking tee, and with the clock running down to the end of the first half, Irish won a line-out inside the Leicester 22.
Captain Bob Casey leapt the highest and set up Steffon Armitage to burrow towards the Tigers line. George Stowers then kept the momentum going to leave the Exiles just yards short. All eyes looked to the flanks, but Armitage had other ideas and seizing the opportunity, spun a tackle and crashed over the line for his third successive try and his fourth in five matches against Leicester.
Homer knocked over the simple conversion to leave the score 25-10 to the home side at half-time.
Armitage began the second half as he had finished the first, on the front foot, as he slalomed through the Tigers' line as he made significant ground upfield.
His adventure set the tone for his side and Irish's newly found impetus was rewarded with the opportunity to reduce the deficit further, but Homer's early penalty just sailed wide.
However, there seemed to be a change of fortune in the second period, in favour of the visitors, and all of a sudden Tigers' kicks were failing to find their mark and some of their passes were ending up in Irish hands and the Eciles new found luck was rewarded 10 minutes into the half when Lamb, having taken over kicking duties from Homer, added three points.
Just a minute later Chris Hala'ufia was sinbinned for a tackle on Castrogiovanni, but it was Irish who had the opportunity to add to their score, only for Lamb to kick wide.
With the groans and grumbles of the home support increasing, Tigers stirred into action and began to launch a wave of attacks on the Irish defence.
Yet, despite their numerical advantage, the hosts could only managed to add three points while Hala'Ufia was off the field, and the Number 8's first act on his return, was to watch Lamb cancel out Jeremy Staunton's earlier penalty and leave the scores at 28-16.
Lamb then added another penalty to reduce the gap to just nine points, only for Irish's resistance to be finally ended three minutes later, as replacement George Chuter scored with almost his first touch of the game. Staunton added the extras and the match finished 35-19.
