Leicester Tigers recovered from a 19-8 half-time deficit to beat Gloucester 29-26 in a thrilling Premiership game at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on Sunday.
The visitors were impressive in defeat but a hat-trick from Wales international centre Max Llewellyn, as well as a try from Freddie Thomas, was ultimately in vain.
Leicester‘s scores came via Ollie Hassell-Collins, Handre Pollard, Josh Bassett and Dan Kelly, with the Springboks fly-half adding a further nine points off the tee.
The Ed Slater Cup, inaugurated to mark the sad diagnosis of MND for the former Leicester and Gloucester lock, was paraded by his two young 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren before kick-off and in the first half the visitors looked well-set to triumph at Welford Road for the second year in succession.
Leicester were quickly out of the blocks to take a fifth-minute lead when Pollard knocked over a straightforward penalty.
However, Gloucester’s response was swift as they scored an excellent try. From a 50:22 Zach Mercer crossed the gain line and when the ball was recycled, a sweetly-timed pass from Charlie Atkinson sent Llewellyn over.
Two minutes later, Gloucester scored a second when Arthur Clark burst through a tackle to create a try for fellow lock Thomas, who galloped 20 metres to the line.
The home side were temporarily stunned but they kept in touch when Hassell-Collins was presented with an opportunity and the wing took his chance in style, brushing aside a weak tackle from Josh Hathaway to crash over.
After a stagnant period of play, Gloucester reignited proceedings with a superb score.
On halfway, a chip over the top from an alert Tomos Williams was collected by Santi Carreras, who took his side deep into the opposition 22. The move looked to have lost its impetus but Llewellyn saw a gap and raced through it for his second.
The conversion attempt from Carreras went badly astray but Gloucester still held a 19-8 interval lead. Two careless mistakes early in the second half gifted their opponents their second try.
A fumble from Carreras and a high tackle from Clark gave Tigers an attacking platform and from a pre-planned move, Pollard darted over to keep his side in contention.
In the 48th minute, Leicester regained the lead when an impressive burst from Freddie Steward provided Bassett with an easy run-in.
The third quarter was all one-way traffic in Tigers’ favour and the only surprise was that it took them so long to pick up their bonus-point try. It eventually came when Kelly finished off a succession of forward tries.
Gloucester looked a spent force but they conjured up a late rally for Llewellyn to complete his hat-trick but Tigers just held on for a valuable five points.
The teams
Leicester Tigers: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Josh Bassett, 13 Dan Kelly, 12 Joseph Woodward, 11 Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Olly Cracknell, 7 Tommy Reffell, 6 Hanro Liebenberg, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Harry Wells, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Julián Montoya, 1 Nicky Smith
Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare, 17 James Cronin, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Tom Manz, 20 Emeka Ilione, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Jamie Shillcock, 23 Will Wand
