Jamie Blamire scored two tries as Leicester convincingly beat Gloucester at Villa Park.
Gloucester made a miserable start on their first excursion to the Premier League football ground in Birmingham, conceding 22 points in the opening quarter and never looked liked to overhauling that deficit.
A record defeat in fixtures between the clubs looked on the cards but Gloucester regrouped to show spirit and Tigers became careless, though the game was a virtual non-event after that opening blitz.
The win kept Leicester in third place in the league table with their opponents stuck on just two Prem wins in 12 league outings.
In the process the Tigers retained the Slater Cup, with the fixture named in honour of former Gloucester and Leicester lock Ed Slater following his diagnosis with motor neurone disease in 2022.
Will Wand, Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Orlando Bailey and Harry Wells were also on Leicester’s try-scoring sheet with Billy Searle adding two conversions and James O’Connor one.
Matias Alemanno, Will Joseph and Dian Bleuler scored Gloucester’s tries, one of which Charlie Atkinson converted.
Tigers were ahead within two minutes when a long pass from Searle sent Wand galloping down the left flank to score.
Three minutes later Leicester had another by way of almost an exact replica but this time it came on the right flank, with Hamer-Webb powering through an attempted tackle from Ollie Thorley to score.
Gloucester’s nightmare start continued with the concession of a third try in only 11 minutes. Caolan Englefield knocked on in his own 22 to provide the visitors with an attacking platform from which Blamire finished off a driving line-out.
The bonus-point try soon arrived when Blamire repeated the dose but Searle missed for the third consecutive time so Tigers led 22-0 at the end of a totally one-sided first quarter.
After 21 minutes, Gloucester conjured up their first attack and made it onto the scoreboard when Alemanno forced his way over from close range to reward bursts from Jack Clement and Max Llewellyn.
The second quarter became disjointed as both sides made frequent handling errors. However, on the stroke of half-time, Bailey scored Tigers’ fifth with a successful conversion from Searle giving his side a 29-5 interval lead.
Three minutes after the restart, Gloucester reduced the arrears when good work from Englefield set up a try for Joseph but there was to be no further score until Bleuler made the scoreline respectable with the hosts’ third seven minutes from time.
However, Tigers deservedly had the final say with a late try from Wells.
PA
