Leicester come from behind to beat Gloucester

Leicester Tigers came from being 24 behind to beat Gloucester in their Aviva Premiership season opener.

Gloucester raced out to a 24-7 lead by half time but Leicester fought back with tries from new signing JP Pietersen on his debut as well as Sam Harrison who crossed twice and Brendon O’Connor who scored the final Tigers try.

Matt Scott scored two tries for Gloucester  while Charlie Sharples and Henry Purdy also scored for the west country side.

Final Score Gloucester (24) 31 Leicester Tigers (7) 38

Scorers

Gloucester
Tries – Scott 2, Sharples, Purdy
Pen – Laidlaw
Con – Laidlaw 4
Drop –

Leicester Tigers
Tries – Tuilagi, Pietersen, Harrison 2, O’Connor
Pen – Burns
Con – Burns 3, Harrison 2
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee : Wayne Barnes (171st Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Ian Tempest & Peter Allan.
TMO: David Grashoff.

Teams

Gloucester Rugby:

15. Tom Marshall; 14. Charlie Sharples, 13. Matt Scott, 12, Billy Twelvetrees, 11. Henry Purdy; 10. Billy Burns, 9. Greig Laidlaw (capt); 1. Yann Thomas, 2. Richard Hibbard, 3. John Afoa; 4. Tom Savage, 5. Mariano Galarza; 6. Ross Moriarty, 7. Matt Kvesic, 8. Ben Morgan

Replacements: 16. Darren Dawidiuk, 17. Paddy McAllister, 18. Paul Doran-Jones, 19. Joe Latta, 20. Jacob Rowan, 21. Willi Heinz, 22. James Hook, 23. Gareth Evans

Leicester Tigers

15 Mathew Tait, 14 Telusa Veainu, 13 Peter Betham, 12 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 11 JP Pietersen, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Sam Harrison, 1 Marcos Ayerza, 2 Tom Youngs (c), 3 Greg Bateman, 4 Ed Slater, 5 Dom Barrow ,6 Luke Hamilton, 7 Brendon O’Connor, 8 Lachlan McCaffrey

Replacements : 16 George McGuigan, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 Will Evans, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Matt Smith, 23 Adam Thompstone