Leicester’s early four-try burst laid the foundations for a fourth successive Prem victory as they overcame Gloucester at Villa Park to retain the Slater Cup.
Wing duo Will Wand and Gabriel Hamer-Webb each scored tries earlier than a quickfire double from Jamie Blamire put the rampant Tigers 22-0 up contained in the opening quarter.
Matias Alemanno responded for the Cherry and Whites, however Orlando Bailey grabbed a fifth Leicester attempt to cement their grip simply earlier than half-time.
Gloucester improved after the interval and Will Joseph and Dian Bleuler went over to provide them hope, but it surely was not sufficient and Harry Wells’ late rating sealed the Tigers’ win.
They tore Gloucester to shreds throughout the early exchanges, with Wand taking solely two minutes to open the scoring as his swerving run on the left took him away from two defenders to race over.
Hamer-Webb quickly adopted swimsuit on the alternative flank, latching onto a perfectly-timed go from Billy Searle and streaking clear, earlier than Blamire’s double secured his aspect’s bonus level with solely 16 minutes on the clock.
With Ollie Chessum dominating on the lineout, Leicester’s pack swung round for Blamire to crash over the road, and the hooker grabbed his second following a deft one-two with Hamish Watson.
Alemanno lastly bought Gloucester on the scoresheet from shut vary after a spell of stress on the Tigers’ line, however a lot of their assaults floundered due to untidy passing, and so they fell additional behind on the stroke of half-time.
The spectacular Wand started the transfer with one other darting run and performed a key function in its climax, offloading whereas on the bottom for Bailey to bop by a spot within the Gloucester defence and prolong the Tigers’ result in 24 factors.
The Cherry and Whites started strongly after the turnaround, constructing phases and decreasing the deficit when Caolan Englefield arrange Joseph to drive his means over within the nook.
Leicester appeared to ease up and Seb Atkinson made floor to create renewed stress that resulted in Bleuler, a half-time substitute for Val Rapava-Ruskin, dotting down with eight minutes nonetheless to play.
But it surely made little distinction to the result and Wells’ transformed rating late on, which was allowed to face after preliminary suspicions of offside, lastly ended Gloucester’s hopes.
It means the Slater Cup – contested twice every season in honour of Ed Slater, who captained each golf equipment and is now dwelling with motor neurone illness – stays within the Tigers’ possession.
Leicester Tigers head coach Geoff Parling advised BBC Radio Leicester:
“It was an awesome begin. Any individual advised me it was our fastest-ever bonus level, and we had been utterly on high and enjoying properly.
“We had practically 70% territory within the first quarter-hour. We had been forcing errors and enjoying off the again of that.
“There was frustration within the second half. At instances we in all probability misplaced a little bit of management across the set-piece and turning the ball over. We could not actually get a foothold within the sport, after I suppose yet another attempt would have put them to the sword and so they’d have been overplaying.
“However clearly to come back away on an enormous event with the 5 factors was the outcome we wished. It is troublesome, however the perfect groups sustain that depth for 80 minutes and that is our problem now.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington advised BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
“The primary 20 minutes was as dangerous as we might have had. We missed some straightforward tackles out huge, gave them too straightforward tries and bought pinged off the park within the scrum, which has been an space of power for us just lately.
“If we had a sport subsequent week, there are positively a couple of lads who would not be beginning for Gloucester after the way in which they got here out of the blocks.
“If I am trustworthy, I believe it was centred round a few particular person performances in that first 20. Loads of the lads had been placing it in and by the tip of that first half we might opened Leicester up so much.
“Our passing wasn’t correct sufficient to benefit from it. All through the entire sport there have been a variety of dropped balls, a variety of little ahead passes, and that was irritating.”
