Gloucester founder on Leicester rocks

LEICESTER secured their first try bonus point of the season in the final move of the match after Gloucester were again hounded off the ball in another match that showed the dividing line in the Premiership is physicality.

- PAUL REES

Leicester had it throughout their team but Gloucester, for all the initial endeavours of No.8 Jack Clement and centre Seb Atkinson, posed far less threat to the gain line and came to replicate coastal erosion, crumbling gradually and then steadily.

It was Gloucester’s fifth successive Premiership defeat and their seventh in a row against Leicester in the league who secured a fourth straight win at Kingsholm for the first time in their history.

For all Gloucester were missing the likes of Val Rapava Ruskin, Ruan Ackermann, Zach Mercer and Adam Hastings, they lacked Leicester’s identity and coherence.

If there was a cynicism about the Tigers, happy to infringe rather than concede quick possession, especially at the scrum which often resulted in a free-kick that saw the ball kicked to them as a reward rather than punishment, they drew Gloucester into a kicking contest that best suited them and had Tommy Reffell burgling at the breakdown.