Gloucester founder on Leicester rocks

By PAUL REES

Gloucester ……………………20pts

Tries: McGuigan 49, Ford-Robinson 65

Conversions: Barton 50, 66

Penalties: Barton 16, 2

Leicester …………………….. 38pts

Tries: Hassell-Collins 39, 62; Montoya 54, Kata 80

Conversions: Pollard 55, 63, 80

Penalties: Pollard 3, 32, 35, 71

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.

Leicesterhaditthroughout their team but Gloucester, for all the initial endeavours of No.8 Jack Clement and centre Seb Atkinson, posed far less threat to the gainline 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.

Gloucester had a decent share of play in the first half but went into the break 14-6 down. George Barton kicked only two penalties out of five with Leicester opting to infringe rather than concede quick possession while Handre Pollard landed his three.

The South Africa outside-half missed the mark with the last kick of the half, a conversion of a try which had until then looked a fanciful prospect in a contest that had yielded 17 penalties and free-kicks and been largely free of risk.

Gloucester were denied victory at Exeter in the last round by a late penalty call that divided opinion in the commentary box and the crowd were enraged when Santiago Carreras was ruled to have touched the ball down behind his line after being manhandled by Josh Bassett.

Carreras maintained he had not grounded the ball and set off on a break, but a television match official intervention judged the ruling of referee Tom Foley that he had was not a clear mistake.

Winging in: Ollie Hassell-Collins scores Leicester's first try after evading Santi Carreras

PICTURES: Getty Images

Gloucester drove the resulting scrum hard through Fraser Balmain, but No.8 Jasper Wiese picked up before a penalty became an option and Freddie Steward's long pass gave Ollie HassellCollins the room to wrong foot Carreras and drive through the full-back.

Gloucester continued to send high kicks towards Steward, who apart from one blemish, rendered the tactic ineffective, but the home side scored first in the second half when a penalty lineout turned into a try for George McGuigan after backs Chris Harris and Louis Rees-Zammit joined the driving maul.

The comeback lasted as long as it took for Ollie Chessum and Barton to find themselves in the sin-bin for acts of foul play that looked borderline penalties, and just as Gloucester were adapting to the loss of their numerical advantage, Julian Montoya was driven over.

Hassell-Collins scored his second when Gloucester were down to 13 with Clement seeing yellow after a breakdown on his line. Jamal Ford-Robinson responded for the home side, but Pollard kicked his fourth penalty before Solomone Kata turned yet another mistake by Gloucester into a bonus point.

No way through: Gloucester's Seb Atkinson