Premiership: Leicester 35-23 Gloucester - Tigers earn victory over battling Gloucester

Guy Porter scored the bonus point try to extend the Tigers' lead at the top of the Premiership to 16 points

A strong second-half showing saw leaders Leicester Tigers overcome a determined Gloucester to register a fourth consecutive Premiership win.

Jack van Poortvliet and Jasper Wiese put the hosts ahead before Gloucester hit back through Ollie Thorley and Adam Hastings to earn a half-time lead.

Skipper Hanro Liebenberg put Tigers back in front and Guy Porter added the bonus point after 71 minutes.

Battling Gloucester added a late consolation through Harry Elrington.

Leicester now have a 16-point lead at the top of the Premiership, while the Cherry and Whites remain fifth, just a point outside the play-off places.

• Premiership table

An early Hastings penalty put Gloucester ahead but going behind prompted a response from Tigers, and they were twice stopped just short of the line before scrum-half van Poortvliet ghosted through a gap to score after a quarter of an hour.

Hastings reduced the gap from the tee before Leicester stretched their lead through number eight Wiese, whose quick tap-penalty caught Gloucester napping as he powered over, with Burns converting to make it 14-6.

The visitors soaked-up some more Tigers pressure before Santiago Carreras broke the line and found Thorley who ducked under a Nemani Nadolo tackle to score, with Hastings' conversion closing the gap to a single point.

George Skivington's men then lost England centre Mark Atkinson after a clash of heads, bringing Welsh international Louis Rees-Zammit into the action as a replacement, but a scrum penalty on the stroke of half-time allowed Hastings to give them a lead of two points at the break.

A set-piece saw Tigers go back in front after 51 minutes with a driving maul from a five metre lineout setting the groundwork for Liebenberg to reach out and dot the ball down.

Burns added the conversion and a penalty allowed him to stretch the lead out to 24-16.

Gloucester sub Alex Craig had only been on the pitch for five minutes when a high tackle on Liebenberg saw him yellow carded and Burns add another three.

Tigers put the game beyond Gloucester when Porter dived over surrounded by defenders with seven minutes remaining, before Elrington's try and a late Burns penalty, his third of the game, rounded-off the scoring.

Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick:

"Gloucester are a really good team, who really stretched us in that period before half-time so it was a tough old game.

"I thought we were in control when we took a 14-6 lead but Gloucester are a smart side and were able to come back and put us under pressure.

"In the first half it was two good teams trying to work each other out so we needed to be close to near our best to get the win."

Cherry and Whites head coach George Skivington:

"It's very disappointing and the boys are gutted in the dressing room but it shows how clinical you have to be if you are going to be one of the top teams.

"We'll have to analyse this and learn some serious lessons from it. In the first half it was a real dogfight and it was pleasing to be in the lead at half-time as Leicester had thrown everything at it and we responded well.

"We didn't get to fire any shots from our driving maul and we didn't deliver what we wanted in the second half as we gave away too many penalties from ill-discipline. In the first half we were able to rebound from any mistakes we made but we weren't able to do that in the second."

Leicester: Hegarty, Ashton, Porter, Kelly, Nadolo, Burns, Van Poortvliet; Whitcombe, Montoya, Heyes, Wells, Snyman, Martin, Liebenberg (capt), Wiese.

Replacements: Dolly, Van Wyk, Leatigaga, Green, Reffell, Wigglesworth, Scott, Potter.

Gloucester: Moyle, Carreras, Seabrook, Atkinson, Thorley, Hastings, Chapman; Rapava-Ruskin, Singleton, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Reid, Ludlow (capt), Ackermann.

Replacements: Socino, Elrington, Ford-Robinson, Craig, Clement, Meehan, Barton, Rees-Zammit.

Referee: Jack Makepeace.

Yellow card: Craig (Gloucester)

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