Champions Leicester Tigers dealt Gloucester a hammer blow to their top four hopes and made it six successive victories over the Cherry Whites in the Premiership with a 26-5 bonus point win at Kingsholm.

Second-half tries from Mike Brown and Julian Montoya in a five-minute period gave Leicester the lead after the game had endured a scoreless first half.

Gloucester hit back through a Jonny May try but a yellow card moments later for skipper Lewis Ludlow halted their comeback.

Ben Youngs crossed over for Leicester’s third try moments later and Jasper Wiese added the bonus point try right on full time to to move the Tigers up to third on points difference whilst Gloucester remain in eighth and with only one win in their last five outings.

Tigers also retain the Slater Cup, a new trophy introduced this season, in honour of former lock Ed Slater who played for both sides before retiring after being diagnosed with MND.

Gloucester began well thanks to a Santiago Carrerars’ 50-22 kick, which gave them good field position, but the Cherry and Whites couldn’t take advantage as they failed to execute their rolling maul.

Leicester also spurned an early attacking opportunity before Tom Seabrook and Carreras both made poor decisions in attack which prevented the home side taking the lead.

Both sides were guilty of mistakes with penalties and handling errors plentiful in a scrappy first period.

However, it was Carreras who brought a bit of life to proceedings going quickly from a tap penalty, which forced another infringement, seeing Harry Potter sent to the sin-bin and giving Gloucester a golden opportunity to open the scoring.

Gloucester were camped in the Tigers twenty-two for the majority of the sin-bin period but could not capitalise and came away empty-handed and the game remained scoreless.

Gloucester failed to break the deadlock despite playing against 14 men and Leicester worked their way up the field and elected to go the corner rather than take the three, but their maul was halted superbly by Gloucester to leave the half-time score at 0-0.

The second half continued where the first half left off, Carreras kicking a penalty dead in goal to gift let Leicester off the hook.

The Tigers then burst into life, George Martin ran over Jordy Reid, and rampaged into the Gloucester twenty-two. Leicester then earned a penalty and thought they had scored through Hanro Liebenberg, only for the try to be correctly ruled out for a double movement.

It was the visitors though who began to get a grip of the game and they finally opened the scoring with Brown burrowing over from close range. The conversion struck the post to leave the Tigers with a 5-0 lead.

Momentum was firmly with the Tigers and they took full advantage working their way deep into the Gloucester half and having gone to the corner they put together a rolling maul which saw captain Montoya dive over for Leicester’s second, which Pollard converted.

To their credit Gloucester hit back immediately and after a lovely move to send the ball wide, May barged over against his former side to reduce the deficit to 12-5. f

However, as Gloucester looked to draw level, Ludlow was sent to the bin for a deliberate knock on and the Premiership holders took full advantage of their man advantage as Youngs sniped over to all but secure the Slater Cup.

The afternoon got worse for George Skivington’s side as May was sent to the sin-bin for a professional foul as they slumped to their third home defeat of the season.

The afternoon got better for Leicester as they earned a bonus point right on full time with Wiese powering his way over and pile the misery on for Gloucester.

Gloucester Rugby: 15. Lloyd Evans, 14. Jonny May, 13. Tom Seabrook, 12. Seb Atkinson, 11. Ollie Thorley, 10. Santi Carreras, 9. Ben Meehan, 1. Val Rapava-Ruskin, 2. Seb Blake, 3. Kirill Gotovtsev, 4. Freddie Clarke, 5. Matias Alemanno, 6. Jordy Reid, 7. Lewis Ludlow, 8. Ruan Ackermann

Replacements: 16. Henry Walker, 17. Harry Elrington, 18. Jamal Ford-Robinson, 19. Cam Jordan, 20. Albert Tuisue, 21, Charlie Chapman, 22. Billy Twelvetrees, 23. Alex Hearle

Leicester Tigers: 15 Mike Brown [3], 14 Harry Potter [60], 13 Matt Scott [61], 12 Guy Porter [55], 11 Harry Simmons [32], 10 Handré Pollard [8], 9 Ben Youngs [297], 1 Tom West [4], 2 Julián Montoya (c) [37], 3 Joe Heyes [117], 4 Harry Wells [174], 5 Eli Snyman [29], 6 Hanro Liebenberg [78], 7 Olly Cracknell [18], 8 Jasper Wiese [54]

Replacements: 16 Charlie Clare [72], 17 James Cronin [10], 18 Will Hurd [22], 19 Cameron Henderson [30], 20 George Martin [52], 21 Emeka Ilione [9], 22 Tom Whiteley [2], 23 Charlie Atkinson [13]

Referee : Ian Tempest (111th Premiership game).

Assistant Referees: Anthony Woodthorpe and Phil Watters.

TMO: Andrew Jackson.

Citing Officer : Richard Nunn.