Leicester Tigers have stepped up their pursuit for Heineken Cup justice after last weekend’s defeat against Ospreys – by appointing a sports law firm.

The Tigers remain aggrieved following Saturday’s 17-12 Pool Three defeat which knocked them out of the competition because the Magners League side briefly had 16-men on the pitch.

Although this may sound like the Guinness Premiership outfit are merely clutching at straws in a last-ditch attempt to be reinstated, Osprey’s full-back Lee Byrne – who was the 16th man on the field at the time – helped thwart a Leicester counter-attack, and the beaten club believe this had a key bearing on the result.

Ospreys advanced to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals at the Tigers’ expense, but Leicester are now waiting to hear whether or not the ERC believe they have a valid case.

“The Leicester Tigers Board of Directors have reviewed the footage of Saturday’s Heineken Cup Pool Three game against Ospreys and believe there is a clear case for concern,” a club statement read.

“The Board has a duty to the club and the other teams in the competition to do everything in their power to help ERC to determine, as fully and speedily as possible, who was responsible for a 16th player being on the pitch.

“To that end, the club have lodged an official written complaint with ERC which they are now in the process of investigating. Everyone at the club is totally committed to supporting the investigation in any way they can.

“Leicester Tigers Chairman, Peter Tom CBE, is also writing to the Chairman of ERC, Jean-Pierre Lux, to detail our concerns in respect of the incident and the club has instructed a leading firm of sports law specialists to represent them in this matter.”

There are no suggestions that Leicester will be reinstated to the tournament if their appeal is successful at this point; however, during the 2003 World Cup in Australia, England were fined £10,000 for fielding a 16th man in a group-stage win against Samoa.

A similar punishment could follow, although in that instance, the likelihood of the 16th man making a difference to the result were far slimmer, as Dan Luger only entered the field in injury time – when England were comfortably 35-22 ahead with seconds remaining.

The referee in last weekend’s embarrassing mix-up was Alan Lewis, who – by competition rules – should have awarded Leicester a penalty once he’d understood their opponents had briefly fielded 16 men.

Yet, this never happened, and is another reason why everyone associated with the club feel particularly aggrieved with the final result.

Had the incident arrived in an earlier cup match, the fallout may not have been so huge. But the fact is, Leicester are now eliminated from Europe altogether and could have avoided this by scoring a try if Byrne wasn’t on the pitch at a crucial point in the game.

There are no guarantees Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs would have crossed the line had Byrne been off the field of play, but the ERC must surely be able to recognise that Leicester have a strong case for an appeal.

Meanwhile, Ospreys have kept a low-profile since the weekend, but released this statement ahead of the ERC’s decision:

“We are aware that a complaint has been lodged with the ERC by Leicester Tigers following an incident during today’s game.

“The matter is now in the hands of the ERC and as such, it would be inappropriate for us to make any further comment on this issue.”

It’s now thought that an outcome will be revealed within the next couple of weeks; but as the saga continues, Ospreys’ quarter-final opponents have confirmed that the match will be played at the 32,000 capacity Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastian.

Rob Swan