More home woe for Gloucester

Leicester: Condemn Gloucester to a third successive home defeat

Related links

Teams

• Gloucester
• Leicester

Also see

• Exiles claim spoils in London derby
• Preview: Quins vs Newcastle

Leicester gave their Aviva Premiership campaign a welcome boost on Saturday thanks to a 19-14 victory at Gloucester.

The Cherry and Whites' defeat was their third in a row in all competitions at Kingsholm and came after England fly-half Toby Flood and Samoan wing Alesana Tuilagi scored second-half tries for the Tigers, who started the day 11th in the standings.

Gloucester began the game the stronger of the two but they failed to turn their early territorial advantage into points.

The first points of the game came on 14 minutes when Flood but Leicester in front with the boot, but within five minutes Gloucester were back on level terms courtesy of a Freddie Burns penalty.

Try-scoring opportunities were few and far between for the remainder of the half, but a second Burns penalty ensured Gloucester went in at the the interval with a narrow 6-3 lead.

Following the restart it was Leicester who enjoyed the lion's share of the play. Flood was denied a try by the video referee on 44 minutes but he was able to put the Tigers level with a penalty a minute later.

Gloucester quickly regained the lead through another Burns penalty but they relinquished their narrow advantage completely on the hour mark, when Flood crashed over for the first try of the match.

The Tigers fly-half was unable to add the extras but Leicester held the advantage. But the game took another twist when Luke Narraway intercepted and raced away to score an unconverted try and, after Flood spurned the opportunity to level the scores with the boot, Gloucester started to believe they may have done enough.

Leicester had other ideas though and when Alesana Tuilagi went over the momentum was back with the visitors. The conversion was missed but a Flood penalty two minutes from time gave the Tigers some breathing space and they were able to hold on for the win.

The scorers:

For Gloucester:
Tries: Narraway
Pens: Burns 3

For Leicester:
Tries: Flood, Tuilagi
Pens: Flood 3

Gloucester: 15 Olly Morgan, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Luke Narraway (capt), 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Will James, 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Darren Dawidiuk, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Dan Murphy, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Peter Buxton, 20 Brett Deacon, 21 Dave Lewis, 22 Tim Taylor, 23 Jonny May

Leicester: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Sam Harrison, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Ben Woods, 6 Tom Croft, 5 George Skivington, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Ed Slater, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Scott Hamilton.

Referee: JP Doyle