By Tigerchick
January 3 2005

Leicester Tigers cruised to victory over the old enemy in a bloody battle at a packed Kingsholm. Gloucester took the early lead with a lovely Henry Paul chip-through allowing centre Nathan Mauger to score his first Premiership try in the corner.
Within minutes Adam Eustace added another 5 points to the Gloucester tally. Luckily for the Tigers, Gloucester’s stand-in fly half Henry Paul was not kicking well and failed to make the conversions. Tigers found themselves two tries down in the first 12 minutes of the game and fought back hard to turn the game around.

Leicester’s opening try was an absolutely stunning display of teamwork as Ollie Smith went powering forwards virtually unhindered to set up a Leon Lloyd score with the help of a sneaky little pass from Geordan Murphy. Fly half Andy Goode brought the scores closer with a successful conversion.

Within minutes Tigers evened the score with an Andy Goode penalty, which when studying the television footage was wrongly awarded as hooker George Chuter’s feet were in fact in touch. The touch judge was only a couple of metres away and really was in the best position to see this.

Tigers didn’t look back from that point, taking full control of the game as Gloucester battled in defence.

Martin Corry was taken off after falling awkwardly in a tackle and dislocating his right elbow, Will Johnson took his place on the field. The bloodshed continued as George Chuter took a blow to the eye and whilst running on to attend to the injured player, Tigers team physio accidentally blocked Henry Paul in what could have been a try-scoring run. One has to ask the question: who allowed a physio to run onto the field at such a key moment of play?

Unperturbed by the Shed’s heckling and jeering, Tigers made the most of a penalty given against ex-Tiger Adam Balding by driving a lineout, allowing Leon Lloyd to slip Ollie Smith a smart pass over the top and speed past full back Goodridge. Andy Goode failed to make the conversion but made up for it minutes later by successfully dropping a goal. Tigers were in the lead by 21 points to 10 at the break.

Gloucester’s only points in the second half came from a penalty kicked by Henry Paul in the 45th minute. Tigers third try came minutes later when Andy Goode chipped forwards, the ball bouncing off the posts and was beautifully collected and grounded by centre Daryl Gibson. Andy Goode added the 2 in what became a 13-point haul by the fly half.

The second half was littered with deliberate foul play on both sides and lead to the sin binning of Leon Lloyd for offside. Ironically, Gloucester would not have scored from the move as Henry Paul fumbled the ball before the offside Lloyd tackle.

Tigers retained their lead at the top of the table and crucially kept Gloucester from their 100th victory of their old enemy.

Tigerchick’s man of the match has to be the awesome Ollie Smith, who out-shone his Gloucester counterpart; setting up one and scoring another of the three Tigers tries.


Tries: Mauger, Eustace. Pen: Paul.

Tries: Lloyd, Smith, Gibson. Cons: Goode 2. Pens: Goode 2. Drop-goal: Goode.