A late penalty from former France international centre Nicolas Laharrague earned 14-man Perpignan a deserved 22-22 draw with two-time European Cup rugby winners Leicester Tigers on Sunday.

Laharrague, capped twice by his country, scored 17 of his side's points with the last penalty coming with just over a minute to go and despite the French team having been reduced to 14 men when rugged lock Rimas Alvarez Kairelis was yellow-carded in the 73rd minute.

It also saw the Samoan Tuilagi brothers end with honours even with Alesana the younger at 29 scoring a try for the Tigers while 34-year-old Henry - a former Leicester player - played an influential role for the visitors before going off in the second-half.

"It is a disappointing result for us as we gave away too many penalties," said Tigers captain Geordan Murphy.

"We left ourselves open to such a result by that basic statistic, we got on the wrong side of the referee.

"We improved on some things from last weekend's match (a 24-19 reverse against Perpignan) but we still left a lot out."

Leicester scored the first try to give themselves a bit of breathing space over Perpignan when they were locked at 6-6 after half an hour of their match played in bitterly cold conditions.

Mercurially-talented fullback Murphy made an incisive break through the middle but was stopped short of the line. However, once the ball came back Alesana Tuilagi bulldozed his way over to touch down and Billy Twelvetrees - who had kicked two penalties - converted.

However, Laharrague landed his third penalty on the stroke of half-time to leave the hosts with just a four point lead at the break.

Boosted by this the visitors struck first in the second-half to move in front with a sneaky little move down the blindside resulting in scrum-half David Mele just touching down in the corner - Laharrague kicked a brilliant conversion to make it 16-13.

However, another break by Murphy saw the Tigers go deep into Perpignan territory and an infringement by the French side led to Twelvetrees kicking a penalty to bring the sides level.

Twelvetrees put the hosts ahead in the 56th minute with another fine penalty after an infringement by the French - but the equally impressive Laharrague levelled the game again at 19-19 with a long range penalty just after the hour mark.

Leicester went back in front in the thrilling ding dong clash as Twelvetrees - nicknamed 36 because Irish captain Murphy's pronunciation of his name comes out as 'Twelvethrees' which comes to 36 when multiplied - converted another penalty with just under 15 minutes remaining.

Twelvetrees though blotted his copybook 10 minutes from time when he missed a golden chance to put the hosts six points ahead but he sliced his penalty and the ball cannoned off the post and was to miss another when Kairelis was sin-binned.

The Tigers looked to have the points sewn up but it was not to be as Laharrague slotted over the late penalty to grab a share of the spoils.

Leicester lie second in the pool three points adrift of Welsh side Scarlets, who they have to play in Wales but have the bonus of hosting Italian strugglers Treviso in their final match.

Fellow Premiership side Northampton also looked set for defeat - their first of the campaign - late into the match with Cardiff Blues but got out of jail as Blues veteran Kiwi Xavier Rush was red carded for a dreadful tackle and Calum Clark steamed in for a match winning try.

Defeat meant an end to Cardiff's hopes of reaching the last eight.

Earlier Wasps, Leicester's English Premiership rivals and like them two-time winners of the trophy, had produced a sparkling second-half display to rout the Welsh outfit The Dragons 37-10, taking a bonus point and moving to the top of Pool 6.

The Dragons were simply swatted aside in the second-half after they had gone in at the break tied at 3-3 on a pitch which had been made playable by sterling work by the ground staff.

Tries by Joe Ward, Mark van Gisbergen, Tom Varndell and Aled Brew shattered the Pool whipping boys, who have a paltry one point from their four matches.

Wasps hold a three-point lead over four-time winners Toulouse - who were the side beaten by Wasps in the 2004 final - though the French giants can reclaim the lead should they win their twice postponed match at home to Scottish side Glasgow on Tuesday.

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