The Stadio Comunale di Monigo crowd were ready to celebrate only for Irish referee Alain Rolland to finally lose his patience with persistent Treviso collapsing at close range scrums and award a penalty try that Ford had no problem converting.

With the Ospreys beating Toulouse in Wales the win took the Tigers one point clear of the French club in what is a fascinating three-horse race for the quarter finals.

The Tigers, who had to survive a spirited Treviso comeback at Welford Road a week ago before banking the five points with a 33-25 win, struck after just 12 minutes with left wing Adam Thompstone breaching the home defence at the end of a glorious sweeping move.

Ford, who had been off target with an earlier penalty goal chance, slotted the conversion and Treviso's problems looked to have been compounded with prop Michele Rizzo sent to the sin bin for a 10-minute cooling off period.

But the home side not only survived his absence but levelled matters in the 27th minute when Rolland adjudged that the Tigers had pulled down a rolling maul and awarded the first of his two penalty tries that Alberto Di Bernardo had no trouble converting.

Although the Italian outside-half missed a penalty chance he made no mistake with the next to give Treviso the lead and let the Tigers know they had a real game on their hands and plenty to think about during the break.

And there was more cheer for the home fans when Di Bernardo struck again with the boot only for centre Christian Loamanu to be their second player yellow carded in a feisty encounter.

And then came that nail-biting finish with the Tigers' scrum power ultimately coming to their rescue.