Gloucester beat Leicester Tigers 23-13 in final to clinch Premiership Rugby Cup

Gloucester 23-13 Leicester Tigers, Kingsholm

Gloucester went on to clinch the Premiership Rugby Cup title as they went on to beat Leicester Tigers 23-13 in the finals at Kingsholm on Friday.

This is the first trophy for the Cherry and Whites in nine years as they made most from the tries of Seb Atkinson and Cameron Jordan.

Gloucester dominated the opening exchanges with more possession and even had a penalty chances against Josh Bassett which they missed as the game remained scoreless in the opening quarter. Tom Whiteley looked threatening to score but stern defence from Gloucester meant his try was denied.

Leicester eventually broke the deadlock in the 24th minute when Handre Pollard kicked a long range penalty goal and he followed it with another successful kick around the 30th minute after Gloucester's set piece was found wanting taking the visitors to a 0-6 lead.

As Gloucester's try was disallowed by the TMO, they were desperate to open the account and were given an opportunity when Finn Theobald Thomas was sin-binned. Lloyd Evans kicked a drop goal to ensure Gloucester's deficit came down to 3-6 at the end of the opening half.

The troubles mounted for the Tigers as they were reduced to 13 players temporarily with Mike Brown sin-binned early in the second half for an infringement at breakdown and Gloucester made full use of the momentum with Atkinson and Jordan touching down in the 48th and 52nd minutes. Barton kicked both the conversions and also followed with back to back penalties in the 55th and 65th minutes to extend Gloucester's lead to 23-6.

The closing stage of the game saw Gloucester's Cameron Jordan yellow carded following which Hanro Liebenberg touched down for the Tigers but that could not stop the Cherry and Whites from clinching the Cup with a 10 point victory.

Team line up:

Gloucester: Evans, Hearle, Llewellyn, Atkinson, Thorley, Barton, Englefield; Rapava-Ruskin, McGuigan, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Jordan, Ackermann, Ludlow (c), Mercer.

Reserves: Blake, Elrington, Ford-Robinson, Clark, Clement, Chapman, Hillman-Cooper, Hathaway.

Leicester: Brown, Bassett, Scott, Kelly, Hassell-Collins, Pollard, Whiteley; Van Wyk, Theobald-Thomas, Heyes, Wells, Carter, Liebenberg (c), Rogerson, Hatherell.

Reserves: Vanes, Whitcombe, Richardson, Cracknell, Ilione, Edwards, Shillcock, Cokanasiga.