Leicester 29 - 7 Calvisano

Austin Healey may not have been playing but he was still the name on everybody's lips here on Saturday. While his Leicester colleagues were breaking new records out on the pitch, the controversial Healey looked on from the stands licking his wounds.

The England back has been summoned to attend a Rugby Football Union disciplinary hearing on Thursday after the independent citing officer lodged a complaint that he kicked the Sale winger Anthony Elliott during the Premiership match between the clubs on December 27. Leicester, however, took their own pre-emptive action on Friday night when they hit their controversial star with a 14-day ban and a £1,000 fine.

All of which tended to cast a shadow over the visit of the Italian minnows Calvisano to Welford Road on Saturday. This was just as well really as the expected explosion of points from the Tigers failed to arrive. Perhaps they could have done with a bit of Healey magic to give some spark to a pretty turgid affair that was dominated by the referee's whistle, the damp atmosphere and an un-Leicester-like boggy pitch.

Inevitably, though, with the fare that was offered on the pitch largely forgettable, the Leicester director of rugby Dean Richards ended up fielding more post-match questions on Healey than on any- thing else.

Richards was part of the three-man panel, along with the club's chief executive Peter Wheeler and director John Allen, who decided to impose the penalty on Healey having accepted his plea that he had indeed tripped Elliott and not kicked him. They must now hope that the RFU is equally as lenient.

Richards will also be trying to get through to Healey that he needs to steer clear of controversy and concentrate on applying his sublime rugby skills to damaging the opposition and not his own team.

"We are going to have to monitor the Austin situation and endeavour to make sure he doesn't do this sort of thing again," conceded Richards.

Healey must have been as frustrated an onlooker as the majority of the crowd on Saturday. That Leicester won and booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup was the important factor. But those expecting a try feast would have left sorely disappointed.

The Tigers were always in control and victory was never in doubt. It was, in fact, their 35th successive home match without defeat, setting a new club record. But they would surely have wanted to create that record with more of a flourish against the whipping boys of Pool One.

In preventing them from running in a shed-load of tries, Calvisano deserved considerable credit, even if their spoiling tactics did push the rules of the game to the very limit.

Richards admitted: "I thought they played very well. It was not just the weather that caused us problems. I thought they played the referee better than we did. We didn't pick up on the interpretations as quickly as the other side."

For the record Leicester managed five tries, two of them from the impressive full-back Geordan Murphy with Steve Booth, Ollie Smith and Martin Corry also registering. Calvisano took a priceless try home with them courtesy of Laurent Bordes.

It is Llanelli this weekend for Leicester in the final group match that they still need to win to ensure top seeding and a home draw in the last eight. It is only a pity that Healey will not be out there to help them try to achieve it.

Leicester: Murphy; Booth, Lloyd (Gelderbloom, 80min), Kafer, Smith; Goode, J Hamilton; Freshwater (Rowntree, 51), Cockerill (West, 51), Garforth, M Johnson, Deacon (Kay, 51), Gustard (Moody, 66), Kronfeld (Back, 51), Corry.

Tries: Murphy 2, Booth, Smith, Corry. Cons: Goode, Murphy.

Sin-bin: Back 71.

Calvisano: Ravazzolo; Bignotti (Gabba, 65), Arboit, Zanoletti (Mazino, 78), Zitelli; Bordes, Dragotto (Scanziani, 64); Bocca (Mastrodomenico, 59), Moretti, Castrogiovanni (Davo, 73), Whitley, Lanzi (Letnic, 55), Scotuzzi (Griffen, 55), Mayerhofler, De Rossi.

Try: Bordes. Con: Zitelli.

Sin-bin: Mayerhofler 71.

Attendance: 15,140

Referee: G Borreani (France).