Gloucester 17-36 Leicester Tigers: Quick-fire Tigers put Cherry & Whites to the sword

By Roger Panting

 

Gloucester ……………………17pts

 

Tries: Alemanno 21, Joseph 43, Bleuler 73

 

Conversion: C Atkinson 43

 

 

Leicester Tigers ………… 36pts

 

Tries: Wand 2, Hamer-Webb 6, Blamire 11, 16; Bailey 39, Wells 78

 

Conversions: Searle 2, 39; O’Connor 78

 

Gloucester’s first excursion to Villa Park was not a happy one as Leicester Tigers continued their rich vein of form with a convincing victory to retain the Slater Cup.

The game was virtually over after Leicester secured their fastest-ever bonus point in the 16th minute as Gloucester started abysmally, with the Tigers strolling through tackles with ease.

Angry Gloucester boss George Skivington said: “I’m trying to calm down, but if I was picking a team now for next week, there would certainly be some changes in it.

“It was a disastrous first 20 minutes with a couple of key moments, whereby individual players chose not to be more challenging in the tackle. We also had an issue at scrum time.

Mountain to climb

“We were still cutting them open, but we dropped too many balls to capitalise, so at half-time I said there was still hope.

“We made changes in the front row and stressed the need to be better defensively in the wide channels.

“After that first 20 minutes, we left ourselves with a mountain to climb, and it was an insurmountable task, although we did play a lot better in the second half.”

Gloucester surrendered home advantage by taking the game to Birmingham and, in so doing, made it an easier trip from Leicester, and at times it seemed that there were more Tigers fans in the stadium.

Energetic: Jack van Poortvliet on the attack for Leicester Tigers
PICTURES: Getty Images

Match action

They couldn’t have wished for a better first half as Leicester dominated the set-piece to allow No.8 Olly Cracknell and hooker Jamie Blamire to have field days in the loose.

Behind the scrum, Will Wand and Orlando Bailey formed a potent centre partnership while wing Gabriel Hamer-Webb overcame his harsh exclusion from the Welsh team to produce an all-action display.

In contrast, Gloucester had few plusses. Max Llewellyn and Jack Clement made a couple of bursts and Lewis Ludlow tried his heart out in his usual fashion, but the end of the season can’t come quickly enough for them.

Leicester began with a four-try blitz, which saw them collect their bonus-point record. The first came after only 110 seconds when a long pass from Billy Searle sent Wand galloping down the left flank to score before another long pass from Searle gave Hamer-Webb an opportunity and the Welsh wing took it in style by blasting through Ollie Thorley‘s tackle.

Caolan Englefield then knocked on in his own 22 to provide the visitors with an attacking platform from which Blamire finished off a driving lineout and soon after the hooker repeated the dose.

Gloucester didn’t get out of their half for the whole of the first quarter, but with their first attack, Matias Alemanno forced his way over to reward bursts from Clement and Llewellyn before the second quarter became error-strewn with frequent turn-overs.

Almost immediately, Gloucester reduced the arrears when good work from Englefield set up a try for Will Joseph, but the second half was a non-event and scoreless until Dian Bleuler and Harry Wells exchanged tries in the dying stages.

Main man: Ed Slater and his family watch on as Gloucester take on Leicester for the Slater Cup, named after the player who represented both clubs. The match at Villa Park raised money for the charity founded in his name, 4Ed