From the second scrum of the game, on the Lions' own five metre line, Adam Jones and the all-Welsh front row forced Mtawarira to stand up.
That said… The Knights' opening try against Parramatta was spawned by a bullocking run and quick play-the-ball by impressive centre man Joseph "BJ" Leilua just outside his own 20 metre line.
Laidlaw added another penalty struck from the Fijian 10 metre line.
However, it was not all going Tovey's way as he misjudged a straightforward penalty for a five metre line-out, kicking the ball dead.
Bradford opened the scoring in the fifth minute, when they were awarded a scrum on the Robins' 40 metre line following an error by Evarn Tuimavave.
The Londoners responded by looking to run the clock down on their opponents' 10 metre line but two penalties gave Leicester an attacking line-out and with 50 seconds to go they went for broke.
The hosts saved their best try until the end, Scott Taylor running from his own five metre line to the Widnes 30 before passing to Hodgson who did the rest.
Things got even worse for Down in the 58th minute as they were awarded a free on the Derry 21 metre line only for McArdle to retaliate to Chrissy McKaigue's initial foul which resulted in his straight red card.
Down struck the game's first goal on 48 minutes when Braniff sent a free on the 21 metre line into the top corner to give the Mourne men a lead they scarcely deserved.
He scored one of the great Croke Park goals in the drawn championship clash against Dublin in 2005 after picking the ball up on the 45 metre line and dummying two defenders before lashing an unstoppable shot past Stephen Cluxton.
De Luca intercepted brilliantly and touched down after the visitors tried to play out from deep, before Nel's dash from the 22 metre line put the icing on the cake.
