Gloucester (5) 17
Try: Alemanno, Joseph, Bleuler Disadvantages: C Atkinson
Leicester (29) 36
Try: Wand, Hamer-Webb, Blamire 2, Bailey, Wells Cons: Searle 2, O’Connor
Leicester’s opening run of four tries laid the foundations for a fourth successive Prem win as they beat Gloucester at Villa Park to retain the Slater Cup.
Wing duo Will Wand and Gabriel Hamer-Webb scored tries before a quickfire double from Jamie Blamire put the rampant Tigers up 22-0 in the first quarter.
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MatÃas Alemanno responded for the cherries and the whites, but Orlando Bailey took advantage of a fifth try from Leicester to consolidate their control just before the break.
Gloucester improved after the break and Will Joseph and Dian Bleuler stepped up to give them hope, but it wasn’t enough and Harry Wells’ late goal sealed the Tigers’ victory.
They tore Gloucester apart during the opening exchanges, and it took just two minutes for Wand to open the scoring when his run wide down the left took him away from two defenders to run.
Hamer-Webb soon followed suit on the opposite flank, latching onto a perfectly timed pass from Billy Searle and breaking away, before Blamire’s brace secured his team’s extra point with just 16 minutes on the clock.
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With Ollie Chessum dominating the lineout, the Leicester pack turned for Blamire to crash over the line, and the hooker grabbed his second after a clever one-two with Hamish Watson.
Alemanno finally got Gloucester on the scoreboard from close range after a period of pressure on the Tigers’ line, but many of their attacks failed due to messy passing and they fell further behind on the stroke of half-time.
The impressive Wand started the move with another swift run and played a key role in its climax, unloading while on the ground for Bailey to burst through a gap in the Gloucester defense and extend the Tigers’ lead to 24 points.
The Cherries and Whites started strongly after the turnaround, building phases and reducing the deficit as Caolan Englefield set up Joseph to break through in the corner.
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Leicester appeared to relax and Seb Atkinson gained ground to create renewed pressure which resulted in Bleuler, a half-time replacement for Val Rapava-Ruskin, coming off with eight minutes still to play.
But that had little bearing on the result and Wells’ later converted score, which was allowed to continue after initial suspicions of offside, finally ended Gloucester’s hopes.
It means the Slater Cup, contested twice each season in honor of Ed Slater, who captained both clubs and now lives with motor neurone disease, remains in the possession of the Tigers.
Leicester Tigers head coach Geoff Parling told BBC Radio Leicester:
“It was a great start. Someone told me it was our fastest bonus point and we were completely on top and playing well.
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“We had almost 70% of the territory in the first 15 minutes. We were forcing mistakes and playing off of that.
“There was frustration in the second half. At times we probably lost a little bit of control on set pieces and turnovers. We couldn’t really get a foothold in the game, when I think one more try would have missed them and they would have been playing too much.
“But obviously coming out of a big chance with five points was the result we wanted. It’s difficult, but the best teams maintain that intensity for 80 minutes and that’s our challenge now.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
“The first 20 minutes were as bad as we could have had. We missed some easy tackles, gave them too easy tries and they knocked us out of the park in the scrum, which has been an area of ​​strength for us recently.
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“If we had a game next week, there are definitely some lads who wouldn’t be starting for Gloucester after the way they came out of the blocks.
“If I’m honest, I think it focused on a couple of individual performances in that first 20. A lot of the lads were doing it and by the end of the first half we had opened up Leicester a lot.
“Our passes weren’t precise enough to take advantage of. Throughout the game there were a lot of dropped balls, a lot of little forward passes, and that was frustrating.”
Gloucester: Redshaw, Joseph, Llewellyn, S Atkinson, Thorley, C Atkinson, Englefield, Rapava-Ruskin, Innard, Fasogbon, Clark, Alemanno, Gwynne, Ludlow, Clement.
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Replacements: Blake, Beuler, Knight, F Thomas, Trenholm, Price, Barton, Edwards-Giraud.
Leicester: Steward, Hamer-Webb, Wand, Bailey, Hassell-Collins, Searle, Van Poortvliet, N Smith, Blamire, Hayes, Liebenberg, Chessum, Moro, Watson, Cracknell.
Replacements: Theobald-Thomas, Van der Flier, Hurd, Wells, Palmer, Whiteley, O’Connor, Radwan.
Referee: Matthew Carley