Leicester Tigers scored five tries as they hammered Aviva Premiership Rugby rivals Gloucester 26-3 at Welford Road on Sunday.

The result moved Leicester up to third in the Premiership as they secured a five points for winning and scoring their five tries.

First-half tries from Logovi'i Mulipola and Steve Mafi laid the platform the Tigers needed to cruise to the maximum five points on home soil.

Both sides headed into this match in good form.

The Tigers were fresh from a convincing win over Newcastle, while Gloucester were on a high following a fantastic victory against Harlequins.

Gloucester got their only points of the game in the first minute, when Freddie Burns booted them in front with a penalty. But he missed the opportunity to double the visitors' advantage moments later when he sent his second penalty attempt wide.

The Tigers struck back in fine style, and by the time half-time arrived they were comfortably in front.

They took the lead in the 12th minute when Mulipola crashed over following quick thinking at the tap restart by Thomas Waldrom. Toby Flood added the conversion.

The advantage was stretched ten minutes later when Steve Mafi barged his way over after snapping up the line-out ball and, though Flood missed the conversion, a penalty goal minutes later and a converted try from Ben Youngs on the stroke of half-time put real daylight between the two sides.

Gloucester were faced with a mountain to climb, but they couldn't find the tries they needed to claw their way back into the game.

The only further points in the second half were scored the impressive Tigers.

Matt Smith rampaged through the mud and on to Billy Twelvetrees' grubber on the hour to increase the hosts' lead, before Alesana Tuilagi rounded things off for the hosts with their fifth try.

Final Score Leicester Tigers (22) 36 Gloucester (3) 3

Scorers

Leicester Tigers
Tries: Mulipola, Mafi, Youngs, Smith, Tuilagi
Conversions: Flood 4
Penalties: Flood

Gloucester
Penalties: Burns

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth (45th Premiership game)

Teams

Leicester Tigers

15 Geordan Murphy (c) 14 Horacio Agulla 13 Matt Smith 12 Billy Twelvetrees 11 Alesana Tuilagi 10 Toby Flood 9 Ben Youngs 1 Marcos Ayerza 2 George Chuter 3 Logoviii Mulipola 4 George Skivington 5 Graham Kitchener 6 Steve Mafi 7 Julian Salvi 8 Thomas Waldrom

Replacements 16 Rob Hawkins 17 Boris Stankovich 18 Julian White 19 Ben Pienaar 20 Craig Newby 21 James Grindal 22 George Ford 23 Scott Hamilton

Gloucester

Jonny May; Charlie Sharples, Mike Tindall (capt), Tim Molenaar, Tom Voyce; Freddie Burns, Dave Lewis; Nick Wood, Darren Dawidiuk, Rupert Harden; Will James, Alex Brown; Tom Savage, Matt Cox, Brett Deacon

Replacements:Scott Lawson, Dan Murphy, Shaun Knight, Jim Hamilton, Akapusi Qera, Nick Runciman, Ryan Mills, Ollie Phillips