Koree Britton moved across to loosehead and Welsh International Tavis Knoyle got some vital game time and teamed up with Jonny Bentley as the half-backs.

The home side named fly-half Ryan Lamb, and experienced forwards George Chuter and Thomas Waldrom amongst their squad, they also welcomed back winger Miles Benjamin after a two year absence through injury.

Gloucester started solidly, competing well at the breakdown with their hosts and forcing Ryan Lamb to find several impressive touches.

The score was opened in the fifth minute, Leicester secured solid ball off an attacking lineout, Lamb fed a marauding Hepetema and his simple offload gave an easy finish to the returning Miles Benjamin.

With Gloucester struggling to clear their lines, Leicester regained the ball, and Lamb pulled the strings to allow England U20s wing Henry Purdy a simple route to the line.

The Tigers were ferocious in defence, Gloucester's time on the ball was limited but the Cherry and Whites did look threatening and the gain line was frequently crossed.

Gloucester were finding their feet, Leicester were keeping control of the game well through Lamb though, and for the visitors, possession was difficult to come by.

Bentley got Gloucester on the board with two quick fire penalties, the first after the Tigers strayed offside and the second after Martyn Thomas was taken high by Hepetema.

Tigers then went straight back on the offensive, Benjamin hassled Knoyle to put Bentley under pressure, and the fly-half was tackled over his own line by a hungry home back row.

As Tigers wheeled the scrum, the ball worked to George Chuter whose speculative no-look pass found thin air when a third Tigers try looked imminent.

It eventually came minutes before half time, an overthrown lineout evaded Koree Britton, and home centre George Catchpole anticipated well to earn a simple score under the posts.

The half time whistle arrived and Gloucester were finding the hosts a rather difficult opposition. The pressure in defence saw Gloucester struggle to implement their own game plan despite not particularly being outclassed.

Half Time score: Leicester Tigers 19 - 6 Gloucester United

The second half was in its infancy when Koree Britton and Ryan Lamb were both red carded.

Bentley knocked over the following penalty but almost immediately Tigers secured their bonus point try. Scrum-half Steele taking a quick tap and wriggling over.

The game was edgy, Tigers players were using every trick in the book and tempers were growing. The referee was doing well to focus on the rugby as the hosts were getting away with a lot of off the ball behaviour.

When Lokotui was sinbinned as a Tigers maul hit third gear, the home crowd were baying for blood. From the resulting scrum, the hosts earned a penalty try for their fifth of the night.

The game opened up, Gareth Evans used his pace and power to break through a gap and steam away and give Steph Reynolds a simple reward for his good support.

With replacements coming on and breaking up the flow of the game, Gloucester still battled valiantly to regain some confidence from the game.

Tigers scored next and got their sixth of the evening, a scrum was rolled close and flanker Michael Noone touched down.

Gloucester still worked hard, Tim Molenaar made a great break before Ryan Mills and Tom Hicks combined to keep the pressure on. Lloyd Evans' neat kick however was too heavy for Matt Cox to chase.

Replacement Lloyd Evans came on and excelled with ball in hand, good balance and distribution fashioned out several positive chances.

It was a brave effort throughout from Rob Thirlby's men but they left Welford Road with a defeat but with plenty of positives to take from the performance.