Leicester Tigers 26 Northampton Saints 14: If we have to enter it, we may as well win it

Winning trophies does matter, after all. All throughout the LV= Cup we've been convinced that in this case it doesn't and that, aside from an opportunity to give younger players game time, there's little other purpose to the competition. At best, it provides your fix of club rugby if you're tired of back-to-back internationals. What we didn't realise, of course, is that all that development stuff in the earlier rounds can lead you to an historic neutral-venue final for the first time against your local rivals and enough talking points to overshadow the Six Nations...

(Source: thisisjersey.com)

Leicester's accuracy and rounded display may have done enough to win the game by opening up a 17-point lead with half an hour to play, but from that point onwards it was a defensive play that can be described as nothing short of world-class that made sure of the victory. This was no Dan Lydiate one-man show, this was a resolute team display in with every player, from 1 to 15, played their part.

They were under intense pressure for the last 30 minutes of the game - Northampton have some huge ball carriers in Tonga'uiha, Day, Clark, Wood and Wilson - but looked capable and confident of withstanding that pressure throughout. That there were 17 missed tackles and 537 metres conceded with the ball, yet only one try conceded 6 minutes from the end, demonstrates that this was no blunt weapon that they were facing. A top-class attacking game was met by a world-class defensive game.

Early on, Leicester looked to be exploiting the experimental nature of the competition by introducing some offloads into their play. They seldom do so because it is simply not in the DNA of the club to play that style of rugby; the sight of a Tiger daintily offloading the ball several times in quick succession is as rare as the sight of a Tiger in the wild nowadays. Steve Meehan-era Bath it wasn't, but Leicester had success with the tactic before the occasion got the better of them and they reverted to type.

The last few league meetings between these two sides have produced some epic battles at scrum-time and this was no different. The two Pacific Islanders Logovi'i Mulipola and Soane Tonga'uiha had as Anglicised a scrum battle as there's ever been, with whoever won the initial 'hit' ultimately dominating. There were worrying times when Leicester's scrum were practically jogging backwards but, when it mattered, Richard Cockerill's men were able to get on top. Saints lost 4 scrums on their own ball and almost all of them were in critical positions on the field.

George Ford had another assured game at fly-half and after impressing against Newcastle, Bath and Northampton in recent weeks he can surely now be considered genuine competition for Toby Flood in the no.10 shirt. The most important aspect of his performance was his 86% kick success rate, which was much better than the season average; it enabled the gap to be opened up between the two teams and forced Saints to abandon their pragmatic Stephen Myler game-plan and switch to the high-risk Ryan Lamb game-plan.

Winning the competitions you enter is sport's primary aim and so, regardless of the image of the LV= Cup, it can only be a positive thing that it is now in Leicester's possession. That young players Mulipola, Kitchener, Mafi, Tom Youngs and Forsyth now have the experience of winning a final that was as competitive and physical as any Aviva Premiership or Heineken Cup final is priceless. Man-of-the-match Mafi, in particular, continues to grow into a colossus. His performances have been consistently superb this season and, as with George Ford, the returning England international in his position can have no assurances that he will be an automatic selection.

Lastly, and regrettably, comes the incident between Calum Clark and Rob Hawkins. The whistle had already blown, Hawkins was not in possession of the ball, the incident was not connected to the play and there was clear intent in Clark's actions, therefore it can only be described as an act of thuggery. A lot of message board talk has focused on comparing this incident to those involving Manu Tuilagi and Chris Ashton but there is no need as it stands up on its own for judgement. It was contemptible. Following the events on a minute-by-minute update online, the Northampton Chronicle could only describe how, "Captain marvel Calum Clark takes the chance to cajole his troops as Tiger Rob Hawkins gets some treatment. Clark's not a quiet one, that's for sure." Sky did not show a replay or comment on the incident. Why? One can only hope that the Citing Commissioner does not turn a blind eye in quite the same way.