By Mike Hill
November 17 2002

Leicester Tigers re-established their position as England's leading club with a powerful and determined victory over current league leaders Gloucester. That the score was only 20 - 15 is testament to Gloucester's resilience and fighting spirit this season. After a superb first half in which Tigers pack took control and three tries were scored, the four try bonus point looked a certainty and a big score was on the cards. However Gloucester even when down to 14 men held out admirably and tightened their defence to leave Leicester scoreless in the second period.

The game started very well for the visitors who scored within a couple of minutes through Jake Boer after strong running by Terry Fanolua and Thinus Delport. This proved to be the spark which ignited the Tigers pack into action and for the next thirty minutes they were truly awesome.

Leicester knew their strength was up front and even with four playing for England we still had four international forwards on the pitch and one on the bench in Tournaire. The whole eight were superb but Martin Corry and Josh Kronfeld were on another planet. Between them they destroyed Gloucester's much lauded pack, who sorely missed Phil Vickery's leadership.

After a period of sustained pressure from the forwards the ball went wide to Booth who cleverly jinked outside and made space for Leon Lloyd to fly over in the corner. Sam Vesty had earlier kicked a penalty so this gave us a lead we were never to relinquish.

Vesty seems to improve each time he plays and this week his kicking out of hand was of greater length and accuracy. He grows in confidence with each game and is showing a keen eye for a break and a decent turn of pace.

Tigers had Gloucester on the rack and they rammed home their advantage with two further scores from rolling mauls both concluded by Josh smuggling the ball over the line. The rolling maul is a skill that must be relearned and refined if it is to remain effective and after a barren spell it seems back in favour at Leicester with the current side seemingly born to maul!

The halftime score of 20 - 5 made painful reading for any Cherry and Whites fan but Dean Ryan's halftime talk seemed to do the job and they defended excellently after the break. A loose floated pass from Sam Vesty let Fanolua in for an interception try and when Henry Paul kicked a penalty it set up a tense finish and gave Gloucester a bonus point.

There were so many man of the match performances this week it is hard to pick one person out but here goes. My choice this week is Martin Corry who showed that not only is he a world class 8 but can play 5 as well as anyone. His lineout work was immense and his tackling and driving phenomenal. How Clive can pick Dallaglio instead is farcical but great news for our title aspirations.

It took a performance that good to deny JK his hat trick of MOM awards but (in my opinion) he was just pipped by Corry. Lewis Deacon had another sound game and Balding, back to full match fitness after injury, is looking good at 8. Harry (H-Bomb) Ellis had brought his fan club to the game and he didn't disappoint them looking fast and sharp throughout with a number of trademark breaks.

It all looks rosy once more with just London Irish to come before the squad is back together for the Saints home game. Some of those returning might just find it slightly harder to get back in than they would like. If Stimpson isn't used by England against the Boks then he could play against the Irish on the Sunday which could also see the debut of Gareth Raynor.

See you at the Mad Stad.