Geordan Murphy, the Tigers skipper and veteran full back, was one of the Premiership outfit's four try scorers and crossed for his 25^th try in the Heineken Cup against the Italian side.

Aironi, who caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament when they beat Biarritz in the Pool stages last season, lost all of their Pool 4 games in the tournament.

It was the Italians who drew first blood in the Midlands when South African fly-half Naas Olivier landed a 14^th penalty to stun the home crowd into silence to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.

The Tigers dominant scrum soon rewarded when the Aironi pack were penalized in the shadow of their own posts and fly-half Billy Twelvetrees converted the three points to draw the home side level.

Olivier and Twelvetrees swapped penalties in a closely contested first half to give the Tigers a narrow 9-6 lead over a stubborn Italian side, who made the home side scrap for every point, at half-time.

After the break, the Tigers scored two early tries at the start of the second half by No 8 Thomas Waldrom and fellow backrower and flanker Ben Woods crashed over to make it 21-6 to the home side.

Murphy then got in on the act to cross for the Tigers third try to extend his record and as the club's record try-scorer in Europe before fly-half George Ford crossed for the fourth try for the bonus point.