A beaming Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom said their toppling of world champions South Africa last night was "an incredible evening for the club".

With a sold-out 24,000 crowd in raptures and a huge financial windfall in the bag from such an attractive tie, Tom watched with pride as a side containing five teenagers beat the Springboks 22-17.

"It was very special and it would have been hard to come up with a better script than that," he said.

"It was truly amazing. Coming into tonight's game with so many injuries and players out with England made it even more special.

"It was an absolutely fantastic atmosphere. We had the chairman and chief executive of Caterpillar (main sponsors) as our guest. He is an American Football fan but he thought it was fantastic.

"There were five players under 20 in the squad and, with 24,000 people there, it was an incredible evening for the club.

"We were thrilled to bits when they agreed to play us months ago. We perhaps caught them on the hop a bit with it being their first game of the tour. It might do them some good preparing for the autumn internationals in the long run."

Head coach Richard Cockerill was also full of praise for his squad, particularly their spirit.

Tom admitted that he had serious fears about strength of the world champions and Tri-Nations holders before the game.

But they were never realised as Cockerill's side landed a memorable victory through Lucas Amorosino's try and 17 points from the boot of scrum-half Ben Youngs.

Tom said: "I was worried going into the game but that first 15 or 20 minutes of scrummaging from us was amazing, especially because South Africa pride themselves on that part of their game. We saw how much people want to play for Leicester tonight. When people put on that Leicester shirt, they are prepared to die for it.

"It was a great finish and the last three minutes seemed like three days. It was incredible and a truly amazing performance.

"Richard Cockerill and the coaching staff should be very proud. We have an ability to do things at Leicester that people don't expect us to do and that was a great example."

Cockerill was almost lost for words when asked to explain how his makeshift team with injuries galore and several members of his squad on England duty took on a Springbok side packed with international experience and beat them. Even the debut of new Australian international signing, Lote Tuqiri, seemed to get lost in the occasion.

"I can't quantify the qualities of these guys," he said. "The spirit we have here is second to none. I don't know where it comes from.

"I have to take my hat off to the players, it was a great occasion for Leicester Tigers.

"The young guys and the old guys turned up and played and we took it to them. They are a bit shell-shocked that club rugby could be like that.

"Martin Castrogiovanni and Boris Stankovich were great, Calum Green and Dan Hemingway were manful and Tom Armes went on as an 18-year-old.

"Craig Hammond is a 28-year-old who has come from Nottingham, Geoff Parling was immense and then there were Andrew Forstyh and Manu Tuilagi in the centres, they were very good.

"Nobody wanted to let down their team-mates.

"Rugby gets scientific in this modern world but sometimes you need 15 blokes to go out there, roll their sleeves up and get stuck in. The scientists can't quantify that can they?"