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Gallagher Premiership
Leicester (8) 29
Tries: Hassell-Collins, Pollard, Bassett, Kelly Cons: Pollard 3 Pens: Pollard
Gloucester (19) 26
Tries: Llewellyn 3, Thomas Cons: Carreras 3
Leicester Tigers overturned an 11-point half-time deficit to squeeze past Gloucester at Welford Road despite a hat-trick of tries from Max Llewellyn.
Centre Llewellyn’s first two tries, sandwiching another from Freddie Thomas, gave the Cherry and Whites a 19-8 advantage at the interval despite a superb finish by Leicester’s Ollie Hassell-Collins.
But it was a different story in the second half, with the Tigers fighting back to lead with scores from Handre Pollard – who added three conversions and a penalty – as well as Josh Bassett and Dan Kelly.
Llewellyn went over again eight minutes from time to complete his first Premiership hat-trick, but Leicester held on for the bonus-point win that lifted them to third place in the table, while Gloucester remain eighth.
It was the Tigers’ third successive victory and ensured they reclaimed the Ed Slater Cup – contested in honour of the former Leicester and Gloucester captain, who is battling motor neurone disease.
Leicester drew first blood when Pollard kicked a routine penalty, but they were stunned when Gloucester capitalised on their first real attacks of the game to score twice in quick succession.
Charlie Atkinson’s cleverly timed pass sent Llewellyn clear to burst through the Tigers’ defence before Arthur Clark set up Thomas, who slid in across the greasy turf to extend the visitors’ advantage.
Leicester struggled to gain momentum until Kelly’s sweeping pass to the left picked out Hassell-Collins, who wriggled past two tackles to crash over and reduce the deficit, although Pollard’s conversion rebounded off a post.
The Cherry and Whites regained the initiative just before the break as Tomos Williams’ deft chip punched another hole in Leicester’s back line and the ball was recycled for Llewellyn to race across in the corner for his second try.
But the Tigers, playing with the wind in their favour after the turnaround, began to dominate in the line-out and swiftly wiped out the arrears within eight minutes of the second half.
Pollard bundled his way over from close range and converted his own try before Freddie Steward’s storming run and pass teed up Bassett, who marked his 150th Premiership start with a score to edge the home side back in front.
Persistent pressure on the Gloucester line finally told as Kelly barged over to seal a bonus point, but the visitors narrowed the gap once more through Llewellyn’s hat-trick try and Santi Carreras’ third successful kick.
Surging forward again in search of a winning try, Gloucester’s hopes finally evaporated as Josh Hathaway spilled a crucial pass and they were then penalised in the scrum as the home side clung on for victory.
Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika told BBC Radio Leicester:
“There were some tactical issues we had to address (at half-time) but those were secondary, I think it was more that we thought we were going to be handed victory – and that doesn’t ever happen in this game.
“Gloucester are a fine team and if you stay off them, they’ll hurt you – they’ve had a try bonus in nearly every game.
“We didn’t go quiet in adversity, we stood up. I was proud of the fact they understood that message and were able to get back on cue.
“We’d like to have kicked on when we got 10 points away and scored another one, but I think we showed good character.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
“It’s a tough loss because the boys did some really good stuff and put themselves in great positions.
“I thought the physicality in defence was outstanding and we had good accuracy in the set-piece, which is tough here.
“We’re going to score tries and we’re going to be in games. The first 10 minutes of the second half were what actually killed us – they scored two tries and we were under a huge amount of pressure.
“I’m really pleased with the way the boys fought back. We could have won it at the end, maybe we should have won it.
“There were a couple of accuracy things in the second half that we’re disappointed with, where we’ve done all the hard work and dropped the ball or not quite got into position.”
Leicester: Steward; Bassett, Kelly, Woodward, Hassell-Collins; Pollard, Van Poortvliet; Smith, Montoya, Heyes, Wells, Chessum, Liebenberg, Reffell, Cracknell.
Replacements: Clare, Cronin, Cole, Manz, Ilione, Youngs, Shillcock, Wand.
Gloucester: Carreras; Hathaway, Llewellyn, S Atkinson, Jones; C Atkinson, Williams; Knight, Singleton, Gotovtsev, Clark, Thomas, Clement, Ludlow, Mercer.
Replacements: Blake, Ruskin, Fasogbon, Alemanno, Tuisue, Taylor, Englefield, Hillman-Cooper.
Referee: Hamish Smales