Leicester Tigers (12) 21
Tries; Barbieri, Youngs. Conv: Burns. Pens: Burns (3)
Cardiff Blues (11) 17
Tries: L Williams. Pens: Patchell (3), Drop goal: Patchell
Freddie Burns' boot dragged Leicester Tigers back from a five-point deficit to win a full-blooded Anglo-Welsh pre-season encounter at Welford Road.
Tries from Ben Youngs and Robert Barbieri saw the home side fly out of the blocks and take an early 12-0 lead.
But Cardiff dominated the middle period and fly-half Rhys Patchell kicked three penalties and a drop goal to guide the Blues into a 17-12 lead.
Tigers grabbed the momentum back though and were the better team in the final half-an-hour. And Burns' three penalties saw them record a second successive win from a bruising encounter.
British & Irish Lions skipper Sam Warburton and fellow international Adam Jones were in the visitors' starting line-up.
But it was Tigers who got off to a start as bright as their new orange kit with two tries in the opening 10 minutes.
Barbieri dived on Manu Tuilagi's rare grubber kick on five minutes for his debut score before Ben Youngs ran in a cracker.
Burns, Tuilagi and Niki Goneva all showed awareness and lovely hands in the build-up and gave the skipper Youngs the chance to dart around the defence and in for the score.
Burns converted one of them to give Leicester a 12-0 lead, but Cardiff shot back immediately.
Half-backs Rhys Patchell and Lloyd Williams combined nicely for the latter to run in and make it 12-5 on 14 minutes.
That score helped Cardiff begin to wrestle the advantage from the home side and they dominated the next 15 minutes.
One penalty attempt from Patchell from 58 metres drew a few cat-calls from the Tigers faithful but the flamed-haired fly-half landed two penalties on 28 and 32 minutes to bring the gap back to just a point at 12-11.
The breakdown was being fiercely contested with British & Irish Lions skipper Sam Warburton and Julian Salvi having a good tussle.
Meanwhile, in the scrums, another British Lion, Adam Jones, was having a ding-dong battle with Logo Mulipola that was frankly far from a friendly encounter.
Fresh from a lacklustre defeat against Exeter last week, it was becoming clear that Cardiff were here to make amends.
They dominated the opening 10 minutes of the second half and Patchell added a drop goal and another penalty to give the Welshmen a 17-12 lead after 50 minutes.
The scores kicked Leicester back into life and a dozen good phases ended with Burns pulling the deficit back to two points.
Tigers began to empty their bench with David Mele, Seremaia Bai and Mat Tait all coming on to the pitch – the latter for his first action of the season.
The changes gave Tigers renewed impetus and, although Burns missed on 64 minutes, he nailed a 68th-minute penalty to put his side back in front at 18-17.
Graham Kitchener's knock-on ended some more good momentum and allowed Cardiff to clear for one of their few attacking opportunities of the second half.
That came to nothing when the referee pinged the Blues at scrum time and Tigers cleared with a textbook kick chase that won them a penalty in front of the posts.
Burns kicked his third penalty of the night and Leicester had a four-point buffer which they saw though until the final whistle.
TEAMS
Leicester Tigers: Morris; Scully, Tuilagi, Allen, Goneva; Burns, Youngs (c); Balmain, Ghiraldini, Mulipola, De Chaves, Kitchener, Barbieri, Salvi, Crane.
Reps: Briggs (for Ghiraldini, 55min), Bristow (for Balmain, half-time), Pasquali, Wells, Grant (for Crane, 64min), Mele (for Youngs, 55min), Bai (for Allen, half-time), Smith (for Goneva, 70min), Thacker, Maksymiw, Beckett, Harrison, Tait (for Morris, 60min).
Cardiff Blues: Fish, Jenkins, Allen, Evans, Smith; Patchell, L Williams; Hobbs, Rees (c), A Jones, Dicomidis, Paulo, Turnbull, Warburton, Vosawai.
Reps: T Davies, R Williams, Mitchell, Normandale, Groves, Cook, Navidi, Jenkins, Jones, Humberstone, Watkins, Hewitt, A Thomas, Walsh
