Heineken Cup holders Leicester were made to work surprisingly hard by Italian minnows Calvisano before securing the win that guaranteed them a place in the last eight.

Tigers boss Dean Richards will be looking for a big improvement on this error-strewn, penalty-ridden display at when they take on Llanelli at Stradey Park next Saturday with a home quarter-final at stake.

The Premiership champions, without the suspended Austin Healey, raced into a 17-0 lead inside 19 minutes but became bogged down on the soggy surface and were repeated thwarted by their little-rated visitors and the whistle of French referee Gerard Borreani.

Calvisano, who had conceded 217 points in their first four pool one matches and crashed 93-14 to Llanelli in their last outing, looked set for another humiliation after conceding three tries in the opening quarter.

But the Tigers lost their teeth and needed an injury-time try from Martin Corry to make their obvious superiority tell on the scoreboard.

Fly-half Andy Goode, handed the goalkicking role in the absence of the injured Tim Stimpson, missed a chance to open the scoring on six minutes when he was wide with a 30-metre penalty.

But the Tigers should never have needed to resort to goalkicking to get past a brave but hopelessly outclassed Italian side and stretch their remarkable unbeaten home record to 35 matches, their best run for more than a century.

Apart from the opening moments, when Calvisano kicked off deep into Leicester territory, the game was played virtually in the middle of the pitch.

Calvisano twice drew generous applause from the big Welford Road crowd when they declined penalty shots at goal but their handling let them down each time and, when they did elect to go for three points, left winger Fabio Zitelli fluffed the straight-forward chance.

Full-back Geordan Murphy had pounced for the first try on seven minutes after Martin Johnson and Rod Kafer had worked the ball out wide and six minutes later right winger Ollie Smith came inside at a scrum to make the extra man and sent left winger Steve Booth over for his 10th try of the season.

Smith was then on the end of a wonderful pass out of the tackle from Murphy to grab a third try and Goode, after three straight misses, opened his account with the touchline conversion.

The second quarter remained point-less as Leicester struggled to cope with the greasy conditions and conceded too many penalties for the liking of director or rugby Dean Richards.

The home side had two tries disallowed at the start of the second half, Lloyd running into a team-mate before he crossed the line and Booth cruelly adjudged offside from Goode's kick to the corner.

The unthinkable then suddenly became a possibility when, against the run of play, Calvisano breached the Tigers' defence.

The visitors worked their way upfield thanks to a couple of penalties and fly-half Laurent Bordes jinked his way through a rare gap to touch down to silence from the shell-shocked crowd.

Zitelli added the conversion to cut the deficit to 10 points and Richards' immediate response was to send on the cavalry.

Internationals Dorian West, Graham Rowntree, Ben Kay and Neil Back were all marshalled from the bench and, within two minutes, sanity was restored.

Skipper Johnson and Darren Garforth were both thrown back from the line but when the ball was at last moved out wide, man of the match Murphy found space to cross at the corner for his second try.

The game, scrappy throughout, disintegrated further and Back was sent to the sin bin on 70 minutes, along with Calvisano captain Chris Mayerhofler, after an outbreak of fighting.

But Leicester had the final say in the third minute of injury time when Corry forced his way over for his side's fifth try and Murphy added the conversion.

Teams:

Leicester: Murphy, Booth, Lloyd, Kafer, Smith, Goode, J. Hamilton, Freshwater, Cockerill, Garforth, M. Johnson, Deacon, Gustard, Kronfeld, Corry.

Replacements: Gelderbloom for Lloyd (80), Rowntree for Freshwater (51), West for Cockerill (51), Kay for Deacon (51), Moody for Gustard (66), Back for Kronfeld (51).

Not Used: Ellis.

Sin Bin: Back (71). Tries: Murphy 2, Booth, Smith, Corry.

Cons: Goode, Murphy.

Calvisano: Ravazzolo, Bignotti, Arboit, Zanoletti, Zitelli, Bordes, Dragotto, Bocca, Moretti, Castrogiovanni, Whitley, Lanzi, Scotuzzi, Mayerhofler, De Rossi.

Replacements: Gabba for Bignotti (65), Mazino for Zanoletti (78), Scanziani for Dragotto (64), Mastrodomenico for Bocca (59), Davo for Castrogiovanni (73), Letinic for Lanzi (55), Griffen for Scotuzzi (55).

Sin Bin: Mayerhofler (71).

Tries: Bordes.

Cons: Zitelli.

Att: 15,140

Ref: Gerard Borreani (France).