What hit George Skivington like a 'slap round the face' in Tigers loss

Leicester Tigers head coach Geoff Parling was pleased with how his players kept up the pressure against Gloucester despite the game being won with something to spare.

The Tigers made the most of an error-strewn performance from the Cherry and Whites by scoring seven tries at Mattioli Woods Welford Road to move level on points with Gallagher PREM leaders Bath.

A 20-minute red card for replacement hooker Charlie Clare was their only negative, but there were welcome returns from injury for England internationals Ollie Chessum and Jack van Poortvliet in a 45-14 win.

Parling said: “We did plenty of good stuff and worked hard for each other.

“I actually thought we were a little bit subdued in the last 20 minutes – obviously the red card didn’t help.

“Gloucester looked dangerous with the ball in hand, but we still managed to force some errors.

“I thought we managed to move the ball better, or more than we have done previously, which is something we’ve been working on.

“Obviously, I’m really pleased to get not just the outcome but to see lads still kick balls into the corner late in the second half, lads still working for each other.

“We were still hustling, we were still trying to get more points, I’m pleased.

“At half-time, the message was we should be moving it more because we missed some opportunities.

“We’ve got some very good outside backs and I’d like us to get the ball in their hands.”

Scores by James Thompson and Solomone Kata eased Leicester ahead before a penalty try on the stroke of half-time gave them a 19-0 lead.

A comfortable night for the Tigers was completed by second-half tries by Tom Whiteley, Tommy Reffell, Billy Searle and Chessum, with Josh Hathaway and Jack Clement scoring consolations for Gloucester.

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington said: “I didn’t see that coming tonight.

“We’ve had a good six weeks and I thought we were in a good spot for it.

“Obviously, losing a couple of lads [to injury] early definitely wasn’t helpful, but still I think our accuracy was really poor today.

“If you’re trying to play the game plan we’re trying to play, you’ve got to be willing to make mistakes, but we make a mistake, we make another mistake then make another mistake.

“Leicester were at some points walking down the field and letting us make mistakes, so we’ve got to have a good look at that.

“It’s definitely a slap round the face. You don’t come to Welford Road thinking you’re just going to get an easy victory, for sure, but I expected us to be really competitive today.

“I thought we were in a good spot with that, but we weren’t accurate enough.”