Leicester Tigers 17 Gloucester 12: match report It was an absorbing match, nonetheless, between two of the Premiership mighty challengers, and to be fair, Leicester failed to capitalise on first half territory and possession, admittedly punctuated overfrequently by referee Anthony Small's whistle, and four players sent to the sin bin, two apiece. Tigers director of Richard Cockerill was adamant post-match that there should have been more. For Tigers, George Ford had replaced Toby Flood - due to have made his 100th Premiership appearance - at outside half, after the No 1 choice was struck down overnight with Norovirus. He commanded impressively in a match in which Manu Tuilagi, given the conditions, barely touched the ball. After slotting his first pen on 4 minutes - with Freddie Burns replying three minutes later with one of his own - Ford missed from the 22, shanking to the right up of the uprights on 20 minutes. When Julian Salvi rolled over the top of a ruck on the Leicester ten-metre line - Burns gave Gloucester an unlikely lead at 6-3. Leicester could have been back in it five minutes later when Ford, the prodigious 19 year old, scuffed his third penalty. It was brief respite for the visitors. Somehow, though, against the run of play and possession, Gloucester went in at the interval with that three point lead. It could have been six points if Burns had not driven another penalty wide with just over 5 minutes remaining. After a rumbustious start to the second period, Leicester made the pressure tell. Julian Salvi drove close to the line receiving a double miss pass from the ubiquitous, sniping Ben Youngs from a ruck, lock Geoff Parling drove hard, and the ball was recycled. Youngs found Anthony Allen with a yard of space to scuttle over in the right hand corner. Small was perfectly placed to award the touch down. Leicester had started to deliver on their first half promise. Gloucester had beaten the Tigers 27-21 in the first meeting between the two sides this season, and they punished Gloucester in a second half, bringing on the heavy artillery with first Steve Mafi and then props Martin Castrogiovanni and Logovi'i Mulipola, and looked like securing the result comfortably until Gloucester's late rally of terror. Scoring sequence: 3-0 Ford pen, 3-3 Burns pen, 3-6 Burns pen, 3-9 Burns pen, 8-9 Allen try, 11-9 Ford pen, 14-9 Ford pen, 14-12 Burns pen, 17-12 Murphy pen. Leicester Tigers: G Murphy; N Morris, M Tuilagi, A Allen, A Thompstone; G Ford, B Youngs; D Cole (M Castrogiovanni 58), T Youngs (G Chuter 75), M Ayerza (L Mulipola 58); G Parling, L Deacon (capt) (S Mafi 48); J Crane, J Salvi, B Deacon. Yellow card: B Youngs 34, G Ford 44. Gloucester: M Thomas; C Sharples, M Tindall (T Molenaar 68), B Twelvetrees, S Monahan; F Burns, J Cowan (D Robson 68); S Knight (D Murphy 56), H Edmonds (D Dawidiuk 65), N Wood (D Chistolini 56); J Hamilton (c), W James (T Savage 65); B Morgan, A Qera (D Chistolini 24-34) (M Cox 68), S Kalamafoni. Yellow cards: S Knight 24, W James 53. Referee: A. Small (RFU)