Leicester’s early four-try burst laid the foundations for a fourth successive Prem victory as they overcame Gloucester at Villa Park to retain the Slater Cup.
Wing duo Will Wand and Gabriel Hamer-Webb both scored tries before a quickfire double from Jamie Blamire put the rampant Tigers 22-0 up inside the opening quarter.
Matias Alemanno responded for the Cherry and Whites, but Orlando Bailey grabbed a fifth Leicester try to cement their grip just before half-time.
Gloucester improved after the interval and Will Joseph and Dian Bleuler went over to give them hope, but it was not enough and Harry Wells’ late score sealed the Tigers’ win.
They tore Gloucester to shreds during the early exchanges, with Wand taking only two minutes to open the scoring as his swerving run on the left took him clear of two defenders to race over.
Hamer-Webb soon followed suit on the opposite flank, latching onto a perfectly-timed pass from Billy Searle and streaking clear, before Blamire’s double secured his side’s bonus point with only 16 minutes on the clock.
With Ollie Chessum dominating at the lineout, Leicester’s pack swung around for Blamire to crash over the line, and the hooker grabbed his second following a deft one-two with Hamish Watson.
Alemanno finally got Gloucester on the scoresheet from close range after a spell of pressure on the Tigers’ line, but many of their attacks floundered because of untidy passing, and they fell further behind on the stroke of half-time.
The impressive Wand began the move with another darting run and played a key role in its climax, offloading while on the ground for Bailey to dance through a gap in the Gloucester defence and extend the Tigers’ lead to 24 points.
The Cherry and Whites began strongly after the turnaround, building phases and reducing the deficit when Caolan Englefield set up Joseph to force his way over in the corner.
Leicester appeared to ease up and Seb Atkinson made ground to create renewed pressure that resulted in Bleuler, a half-time replacement for Val Rapava-Ruskin, dotting down with eight minutes still to play.
But it made little difference to the outcome and Wells’ converted score late on, which was allowed to stand after initial suspicions of offside, finally ended Gloucester’s hopes.
It means the Slater Cup – contested twice each season in honour of Ed Slater, who captained both clubs and is now living with motor neurone disease – remains in the Tigers’ possession.
Leicester Tigers head coach Geoff Parling told BBC Radio Leicester:
“It was a great start. Somebody told me it was our fastest-ever bonus point, and we were completely on top and playing well.
“We had nearly 70% territory in the first 15 minutes. We were forcing errors and playing off the back of that.
“There was frustration in the second half. At times we probably lost a bit of control around the set-piece and turning the ball over. We couldn’t really get a foothold in the game, when I think one more try would have put them to the sword and they’d have been overplaying.
“But obviously to come away on a big occasion with the five points was the result we wanted. It’s difficult, but the very best teams keep up that intensity for 80 minutes and that’s our challenge now.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
“The first 20 minutes was as bad as we could have had. We missed some easy tackles out wide, gave them too easy tries and got pinged off the park in the scrum, which has been an area of strength for us recently.
“If we had a game next week, there are definitely a few lads who wouldn’t be starting for Gloucester after the way they came out of the blocks.
“If I’m honest, I think it was centred around a couple of individual performances in that first 20. A lot of the lads were putting it in and by the end of that first half we’d opened Leicester up a lot.
“Our passing wasn’t accurate enough to take advantage of it. Throughout the whole game there were a lot of dropped balls, a lot of little forward passes, and that was frustrating.”
