Gloucester tame Tigers again by snatching win late

Stephen Varney’s late try allowed Gloucester to get the better of Leicester for a second Friday night in a row as they resumed their Gallagher Premiership campaign with a dramatic 27-25 victory.

Seven days on from defeating the Tigers in the Premiership Rugby Cup final, the Cherry and Whites recorded their first league win on their travels since October.

This came after Jamie Shillcock, a late replacement for the ill Handre Pollard, had appeared to have sent Leicester up to second in the table after they had recovered from a 14-point deficit, but they have instead dropped a place to seventh.

A good chance to open the scoring was missed by the Tigers in the 10th minute when Freddie Steward broke through down the right, but his loose pass could not be gathered by winger Josh Bassett.

Eventually, the deadlock was broken by a simple penalty for Shillcock in the 22nd minute after Gloucester were pinged for offside in front of their own posts.

Having not had much of the ball, it was Gloucester who scored the game’s first try after 29 minutes when quick hands by Max Llewellyn and Chris Harris led to Zach Mercer powering through down the left.

Santi Carreras added the conversion and the Argentinian quickly extended the Cherry and Whites’ lead to 10-3 with a penalty from in front of the sticks.

It was now going all the visitors’ way as a crisp move following a line-out led to Carreras’ ball inside finding Harris and the Scotland centre broke through a tackle to score Gloucester’s second try.

Carreras converted again, but Leicester gave themselves a foothold off the final play of the first half through an unconverted try for Tommy Reffell off the back of a driving maul.

The Tigers turned around 18-7 behind, but they pulled back another five points within three minutes of the restart when centre Solomone Kata was given an armchair ride over the line by his forwards following an attacking line-out.

A Carreras penalty nudged Gloucester’s lead back out to seven points, but the hosts’ driving maul was proving lethal, with Jasper Wiese the third player to score off the back of it.

Shillcock’s missed conversion meant the gap was down to two, which remained the case following a vital turnover won under his own posts by Cherry and Whites captain Ruan Ackermann on Olly Cracknell.

But Leicester completed the comeback with eight minutes left when Wiese passed to Van Poortvliet, who produced a sublime offload to send Shillcock breaking clear to score.

There was time for one final twist, however, as Seb Blake offloaded to Varney 40 metres out and the Italy scrum-half sprinted away for the try, with Carreras’ conversion snatching the win.