Still, fly-half Billy Searle added to his glowing reputation as Prem Rugby’s signing of the season by pushing and prodding the team into the right areas. Then, at the appropriate time, he produced two peaches of passes for Leicester’s opening two tries. Whisper it quietly, but he might just be an upgrade on double World Cup winner Handre Pollard. Centre Wand was also excellent.
But what should have been a marquee moment in Prem Rugby’s calendar was effectively a non-event.
Scoring sequence: 0-5 Wand try, 0-7 Searle con, 0-12 Hamer-Webb try, 0-17 Blamire try, 0-22 Blamire try, 5-22 Alemanno try, 5-27 Bailey try, 5-29 Searle con, 10-29 Joseph try, 12-29 Atkinson con, 17-29 Bleuler try, 17-34 Wells try, 17-36 O’Connor con.
Gloucester: B Redshaw; W Joseph (J Edwards-Giraud 69), M Llewellyn, S Atkinson, O Thorley; C Atkinson, C Engelfield; V Rapava-Ruskin (D Bleuler 40), J Innard (S Blake 40), A Fasogban (C Knight 52), A Clark, M Alemanno (F Thomas 59), D Gwynne (W Trenholm 59), L Ludlow, J Clement.
Leicester: F Steward; G Hamer-Webb, W Wand, O Bailey, O Hassell-Collins (A Radwan, 54); B Searle (J O’Connor 68), J van Poortvliet (T Whiteley 52); N Smith (A van der Flier 52), J Blamire (F Theobald-Thomas 61), J Heyes (W Hurd 61), H Liebenerg (H Palmer 76), O Chessum, J Moro, H Watson, O Cracknell (H Wells 68).
Referee: Matthew Carley.
Attendance: 24,298.