Thomas the thank engine

Back-rower Thomas Waldrom praised the Leicester Tigers pack for his two tries, which helped the club to a first opening-day Aviva Premiership win since 2008.

The 29-year-old England No.8 scored twice in 10 minutes to give Leicester a 17-0 lead on their way to a 38-13 victory over London Welsh at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford.

His opening score on 13 minutes arrived when he popped up on the wing to become a grateful recipient of a pass on the overlap.

Hooker Tom Youngs broke the defensive line and fast hands from Geoff Parling and Anthony Allen sent him sliding into the corner.

Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk

myprint-247

View details

Print voucher

Our heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.

Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk

Contact: 01858 468192

Valid until: Sunday, May 26 2013

His second try was classic 'old-school' Leicester as a catch-and-drive from a line-out rumbled its way ominously towards the line before crashing over.

Waldrom emerged from the pile of bodies to give his customary Thomas the Tank Engine 'hoot hoot' celebration.

"It was good work from the team setting up the phases for the first try and I just got on the end of the line to go over," said Waldrom.

"The forwards worked very hard for the second try. We like to be known as a hard forward pack and doing that job properly on the drive is key for us.

"Hopefully, we can keep doing that and build. We did some really good things in the opening 20 minutes.

"We didn't have the ball for large parts of it but we did well and got points on the board.

"We were not so happy with the two tries they scored near half-time though and will need to look at that when we review the game to see what happened.

"We did some really good stuff in the first-half when we held on to the ball, and we knew that we would do well if we did that in the second-half.

"We managed to do that, built momentum and got the four tries."

Waldrom admitted that it was hard to prepare for what to expect from the Premiership new boys because Leicester had seen so little of the Welsh team in action.

"It was hard to do your homework on them because they have only had two pre-season games and their squad has changed a lot from last season," he said.

"But we saw the team when it was announced, looked at who was playing and got ourselves up for the challenge.

"There's a long, hard season ahead and we will build on this."