Kata stars as Leicester swat aside limp Gloucester

The Prem.

Leicester (19) 45

Trys: Thompson, Kata, penalty try, Steward, Reffell, Searle, Chessum Cons: Bailey, Searle, and Bailey.

Gloucester (0) 14

After Solomone Kata’s Tigers won a wretched victory over Gloucester, Leicester moved level on points with Prem leaders Bath.

A ruthless Leicester won their fourth league game in a row thanks to the Tongan centre scoring a superb individual try and creating another.

The hosts managed seven tries, with Charlie Clare’s replacement hooker Charlie Clare receiving a dangerous clearance late in the second half.

Second-bottom Gloucester never threatened to improve their woeful record in a utterly disappointing performance at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, which have won once there in 18 years.

Tomos Williams, a captain, had a forgettable game defensively at the end of a week and was given the news that he would leave the Cherry and Whites at the end of the season.

At the break, Leicester had a fantastic opening half thanks to Kata, who scored one outstanding individual try and added another for flanker James Thompson.

Thompson was able to finish the job from short range after Kata’s beautiful outside break in the 12th minute extended the Tigers’ deep into Gloucester territory.

Just before the break, Gloucester’s penalty try was awarded to the home side, scoring that Gloucester had illegally prevented Ollie Hassell-Collins from touching down.

Leicester struck twice more early in the second half despite the Gloucester full-back being absent, and Charlie Atkinson, who had combined with Will Butler to stop the touchdown, was yellow-carded.

Before the scrum-half’s chip devasted Gloucester’s defense, and Tommy Reffell was on hand to add Leicester’s fifth, scrum-half Tom Whiteley took a break from the risky Freddie Steward before the dangerous scrum-half’s finish.

Billy Searle jinked his way past some subpar Gloucester defense for a sixth point after adding six with the boot.

And despite conceding Clare in the 67th minute after being sent off, they were still able to add more.

After missing six weeks with a foot issue, second row Ollie Chessum, a member of the British and Irish Lions, tripped over from Jamie Blamire’s offload.

At least Gloucester was on the scoreboard thanks to Josh Hathaway and Clement.

Geoff Parling, the head coach of the Tigers of Leicester, told BBC Radio Leicester:

I thought Solomone Kata was fantastic, I thought. Someone said, “With the ball in his hand, he ran 71 meters.” Sol consistently smashes himself, but he actually moves the ball more effectively than most people would have him.

“We’ve been working on this for a while, and I believe we moved the ball more than we have before.”

We believed we could take advantage of Gloucester by limiting our movement. Some of our outside backs are very, very good at holding the ball.

“We always know we can fall back on our set-piece because we are typically strong at that,” we said.

Tomos Williams, the Gloucester captain, stated to BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

Very disappointing . We started off poorly, and then we continued the next day.

“There were many of our own errors,” the author claimed. We probably had two minds during the game, and those who aren’t fully committed are the ones who come up with errors. I thought Leicester played very well, and they did make some errors as well.

“Our spirits were probably slowed by the try at the end of the first half and again at the start of the second half,” we thought. You’re always going to struggle when you concede two tries either side of half-time.

Replacements: Woodward, Van Poortvliet, Bailey, Haffar, Hurd, Chessum, Williams, and Clare.

20-minute red card: Clare (67).

Gloucester: C. Atkinson, Russell, Butler, S. Atkinson, Thorley, Byrne, Williams (c), Rapava Ruskin, Blake. Laulala, Thomas, Clark, Basham, Ludlow, Clement.

Innard, Ford-Robinson, Fasogbon, Jordan, Taylor, Austin, Knight, Hathaway as replacements.

C Atkinson (40), the yellow card.