Premiership: Gloucester 20-38 Leicester - Tigers retain Slater Cup with convincing win

Leicester retained the Slater Cup with a convincing bonus-point win over Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Handre Pollard kicked three penalties to two from George Barton before Ollie Hassell-Collins' try opened a cushion for the Tigers.

George McGuigan and Jamal Ford-Robinson hit back but tries from Julian Montoya and another from Hassell-Collins stretched Tigers ahead.

A Solomone Kata try at the end ensured Leicester took all five points.

The win means Leicester claim the Slater Cup - named after former lock Ed Slater, who captained both sides and was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last year - for the third time following two wins last season.

Gloucester, meanwhile, fell to a fifth consecutive defeat, and third at home, that leaves them languishing ninth in the table on 11 points, while Leicester jump above them to seventh.

Pollard kicked Leicester in front with an early penalty and Barton drew the hosts level 16 minutes in, having initially seen an earlier kick hit the post.

He finally nudged the Cherry and Whites into a 6-3 lead as a tense first half unfolded, yet it was short-lived as a further two Pollard penalties swung the advantage the other way before Hassell-Collins scored in the corner, evading a Santiago Carreras tackle right before the break.

The kicking battle continued at the start of the second half until McGuigan scored a crucial try from a powerful driving maul, which also led to Leicester's Ollie Chessum being sent to the sin-bin for making contact with Freddie Clarke's face.

For a minute, Gloucester had the upper hand but they were soon also reduced to 14 men when Barton was also shown a yellow for head-on-head contact with Pollard - and Leicester capitalised.

Montoya scored on his first appearance for the Tigers following the World Cup, crossing from their own driving maul, and with Jack Clement then sent to the sin-bin for offside and Gloucester down to 13, Hassell-Collins' second try in the corner opened a 13-point lead.

Ford-Robinson came on to reduce the deficit with 14 minutes remaining but Gloucester could not muster a comeback, and Matt Scott won the ball late to set up Kata for the crucial fourth try.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"We've just been honest in the changing room there - we are five [defeats] in a row so we've got to get ourselves out of this quickly.

"We started off the game, we did some really good stuff. We didn't execute our plays and we're probably a pass or two away from putting it in Zam's [Louis Rees-Zammit] hands and Thorlo [Ollie Thorley] in space. We've got to be honest about that.

"We thought that would be our point of difference against Leicester. We knew they'd be good and we knew they'd kick a lot, we knew they'd be physical, we knew they had some big-game players who would put them in the right parts and put pressure.

"Ultimately their kick game got on top of us - we probably dropped too many balls and gave too many penalties away. But you've got to execute those early moments and give yourself a chance."

Leicester head coach Dan McKellar told BBC Radio Leicester:

"I know what it [the Slater Cup] means to some of our players, that trophy, to represent him [Ed Slater] proudly and to go there and put in a performance like we did means a lot to them and I'm sure it means a lot to Ed as well.

"We certainly didn't come here thinking we'd just walk in and grab a bonus-point win - any game against Gloucester at Kingsholm is going to be a tough one. But we put ourselves in a position to grab that bonus point and thankfully at the end we did.

"To come here, score some good tries and come away with the five points just gives us momentum off the back of last week's win in the derby.

"The first half wasn't the prettiest game of rugby for people to watch but I thought our kick strategy and our defence was outstanding. It opened up a little bit in the second half and we really asserted dominance through our maul.

"Really pleased with the second half and we're starting to see growth."

Gloucester: Carreras, Rees-Zammit, Harris, Atkinson, Thorley, Barton, Young; Vivas, McGuigan, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Thomas, Ludlow (c), Clement.

Replacements: Socino, Elrington, Ford-Robinson, Clark, Donnell, Chapman, Atkinson, Hillman-Cooper.

Sin-bin: George Barton (52 mins), Jack Clement (59 mins)

Leicester: Steward, Bassett, Scott, Kelly, Hassell-Collins, Pollard, Youngs; Cronin, Montoya (c), Heyes, Henderson, Chessum, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese.

Replacements: Clare, Whitcombe, Cole, Wells, Rogerson, Whiteley, Shillcock, Kata.

Sin-bin: Ollie Chessum (50 mins)

Referee: Tom Foley