Geoff Parling pinpoints shoddy Leicester Tigers habit he's desperate to fix

Leicester head coach Geoff Parling felt his side recovered well from ‘not throwing a punch’ early on as they fought back to defeat Gloucester at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

The hosts found themselves 14-0 down after just 10 minutes, but 31 unanswered points set them well on their way to their second straight win in the Gallagher Prem.

However, slow starts have characterised their early-season form and it is a habit Parling is keen to see them break before long.

He said: “We can’t start games like we are at the moment.

“We’ve not started well in games repeatedly this season so first 10 minutes, a 14-0 lead [for Gloucester] but I didn’t feel like we’d thrown a punch, so I felt very calm there.

“There were some really good bits in the rest of the game.

“They’ve got multiple threats around the ball – like Jac Morgan, Dewi Lake – and I thought our carrying was excellent, I felt the way we applied pressure through our defence, you’re starting to see it come through more in how we want that to be.

“We did some really good stuff and we actually feel a bit deflated at the end of the game after giving them those two bonus points, but I think that’s a sign of the desire of the team.

“We’ve got five points and a big performance against a team that’s been going well.”

Early tries from Jac Morgan and Dian Bleuler had Gloucester ahead, but Finn Carnduff, Joe Heyes and Jamie Blamire all scored before half-time to turn the match in Leicester’s favour.

Aaron Wainwright and Ollie Hassell-Collins tries made the game safe for the Tigers, although the visitors claimed two losing bonus points thanks to scores from Will Trenholm and Jack Innard.

After his side’s first league loss, Gloucester head coach George Skivington said: “If you break down the season, every coach will say, ‘if you take points on the road, that’s a positive.’

“I think right now we’re just a bit frustrated because we don’t really feel like we got into the game.

“We had a really good start with our maul, but after that I think it was half an hour before we got back into their 22.

“We made, not basic errors – because nothing is as simple as it looks – but we dropped a few high balls and there are a few things we’re really good at we didn’t quite get hold of.

“I felt like after that first 10 minutes in the first half Leicester had all the pressure and took advantage of it.

“All the momentum was with Leicester and we almost couldn’t do anything without getting pinged (penalised). That’s not on the officials, that’s just the nature of momentum.”