Tigers Maul Gloucester

Leicester Tigers picked up a relatively comfortable bonus point win against Gloucester in the Slater Cup at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, running out 45-14 victors.

It took just 11 minutes for the home side to open the scoring as flanker James Thompson crashed over in the corner. Then just 9 minutes later, the Tigers would extend their lead as Solomone Kata weaved his way through the Gloucester defence to score in the far corner.

Gloucester were forced into 3 changes in the first half and things went from bad to worse when Charlie Atkinson was controversially deemed to be off his feet as he attempted to make a try saving on Ollie Hassell-Collins.

Referee Karl Dickson brandished a yellow card to the Gloucester full back and awarded Leicester a penalty try to take the score to 19-0.

With Atkinson in the bin for the opening 10 minutes of the second half, Gloucester struggled to contain Leicester and both Tom Whiteley and Tommy Reffell scored early tries to seemingly put the game out of reach, as well as securing the bonus point for Geoff Parling’s side

Back up to a full 15, Gloucester attempted to apply pressure to the hosts and they were duly rewarded when Josh Hathaway scored to finally put some points for the Cherry and Whites on the board.

Just after the hour mark, Tigers fly half Billy Searle took a leaf out of Kata’s book and broke through the Gloucester defence to score a superb individual effort, which he also converted.

Charlie Clare was given a 20 minute red card after a dangerous clear out at the breakdown, but this did not seem to impact the Tigers as British and Irish Lion, Ollie Chessum would add to the home sides lead with just 9 minutes left to play, following Orlando Baileys conversion the score was taken to 45-7.

However it was Gloucester and Jack Clement who would score the final try of the game as the number 8 would go over for the second try of the match for George Skivingtons men.

Up next for Tigers is a trip to Sandy Park to take on Exeter on Sunday, meanwhile for Gloucester it’s a tough test as they play host to Saracens at Kingsholm on Saturday afternoon.