91Èȱ¬

Toby Flood scored 14 points to help Leicester to a significant Premiership win at Gloucester and condemn the hosts to a third straight defeat at home.

Flood and Freddie Burns exchanged penalties in a tight first half.

The England stand-off kicked Tigers level after the break and went over to give them the lead.

Gloucester skipper Luke Narraway's interception try put the hosts back in it before Alesana Tuilagi charged down a kick for the decisive score.

Flood gave Leicester the initial lead after 12 minutes of a well-balanced opening with a well-struck penalty into the wind at a blustery Kingsholm.

Burns, who had made a superb line break in the opening passages, equalised with ease minutes later.

The Gloucester stand-off kicked intelligently with the conditions and the Cherry and Whites enjoyed the better territory.

The opening half hour was an arm wrestle with promising attacks undone by knock-ons and forward passes on both sides.

Burns put the hosts deservedly ahead with 10 minutes to the break with a 41-metre penalty and, despite both sides building momentum, neither imposed themselves on their opponents' 22.

After the teams turned round at 6-3, and England scrum-half Ben Youngs came on, Gloucester were immediately under pressure.

Flood was denied what looked like a genuine try when he went over at full-stretch to touch down his grubber kick - but the video referee David Matthews ruled the ball was not under control.

The England stand-off levelled the score when the Tigers won a penalty for an infringement in the build-up.

Burns put his team back in front but, when Rupert Harden was penalised for his binding at the scrum, it set Tigers in motion for Flood's try.

Quick ball and a superb line by Matt Smith saw possession recycled at pace five metres out and Flood dived over but could not convert his own score.

Just a minute later his England half back partner Youngs threw a high-risk long pass which Narraway took with his finger tips to race into the corner from 40 metres.

Flood missed a chance to level but Tuilagi charged down Charlie Sharples' chip to gather and break two tackles for his 11th try in 11 games against Gloucester.

The game opened up as it drew to a close but Flood's third penalty gave Tigers the breathing space to hold on for just their third Premiership win of the season.

Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath:

"I thought we were far better today than against Harlequins last week.

"It wasn't going to be a flash game and I don't think there was that much between the sides, but credit to Leicester.

"We probably should have made a bit more of having the wind with us in the first half and I am disappointed that we have lost at home again.

"Newcastle away is a massive game for us. We can't rely on our home form at the moment, so we have to rely on some of our away results."

Leicester Tigers head coach Richard Cockerill told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Leicester:

"We needed the result. It's a hard place to come and we just focussed all week on winning today.

"We focussed on the four points and thankfully we did enough in the end and played well enough to take the win.

"It was tiny margins - it could have gone either way at any stage of the game. Thankfully, we managed to get the win but it was all round a very pleasing performance."

Gloucester: Morgan; Sharples, Trinder, Tindall, Vainikolo; Burns, R Lawson; Wood, Dawidiuk, Harden; James, Hamilton; Strokosch, Qera, Narraway.

Replacements: May for Vainikolo (65), S. Lawson for Dawidiuk (49), Buxton for Qera (75).

Not Used: Murphy, Chistolini, Deacon, Lewis, Taylor.

Leicester: Murphy, Agulla, Smith, Twelvetrees, A Tuilagi, Flood, Harrison, Ayerza, Chuter, Castrogiovanni, Deacon, Skivington, Croft, Woods, Waldrom.

Replacements: B Youngs for Harrison (41), Cole for Castrogiovanni (58), Mafi for Croft (74), Slater for Waldrom (76).

Not Used: Hawkins, Stankovich, Staunton, Hamilton.

Att: 14,437

Ref: John Paul Doyle (RFU).