Heineken Cup holders Leicester Tigers continued their smooth progress in this season's competition after fighting off a spirited comeback from a plucky Calvisano outfit.

Tigers opened their account after just two minutes with a soft try for quick-witted hooker George Chuter, who pounced on tap-down over the try line from a Calvisano line-out.

Tim Stimpson added the extras but missed a simple chance in front of the posts eight minutes later when the scrum-half Harry Ellis started and finished a fine counter-attack involving Josh Kronfeld and Martin Corry.

Kiwi fly-half Gerard Fraser finally got the home side on the scoreboard with a penalty after a rare visit to the Tigers half.

Steve Booth extended the visitors lead almost immediately when Rod Kafer, playing at fly-half in place of the injured Austin Healey, put in a clever diagonal kick which Geordan Murphy took on the full and off-loaded to the former rugby league winger.

Leicester looked to be cruising when Stimpson powered over from eight meters and converted on the half-hour. And second row Luca Mastrodomenico went to the sin-bin for handling in a ruck.

The Italians made a rash of substitutions at half-time and the introduction of experienced international winger Paolo Vaccari was the major factor in their impressive second-half comeback.

Despite an early try from Ellis, the winger touched down twice during a period of 19 unanswered points which also saw number eight Chean Roux cross under the Tigers post.

Calvisano showed how they turned over Neath on this ground in round three of the competition as they competed exceptionally well at the break down before releasing their rejuvenated back line.

Tigers cause was not helped when impressive Ellis received a yellow card on the hour mark for a blatant shoulder charge.

Leicester's director of rugby Dean Richards was forced to bring on England captain Martin Johnson in an attempt to steady the ship with 10 minutes remaining and fellow replacement Franck Tournaire was on hand to drive over following a Johnson line-out take with two minutes left on the clock.

Stimpson then converted to make the final score 40-22 and send the 700 travelling Tigers supporters home happy.