Match Centre: Gallagher Premiership: Leicester Tigers 25-27 Gloucester

Leicester Tigers 25-27 Gloucester, Mattioli Woods Welford Road

Stephen Varney scored the decisive try in the closing stage as Gloucester edged out Leicester Tigers 27-25 in the latest round of the Gallagher Premiership at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Friday.

This is fourth win for Gloucester in 13 games as they are at ninth place in the table while Leicester are at seventh place following their sixth defeat in 13 matches. This was also the first time Cherry & Whites took home The Slater Cup.

Both the teams were desperate for an early breakthrough in the opening quarter as they wrestled with the first points coming in the 28th minute when Zach Mercer finished over the line after good work from Seb Blake. Santiago Carreras kicked the conversion and a penalty goal to make it 0-10.

The visitors continued to dominate as Chris Harris, who replaced Seb Atkinson dived under the posts and Carreras improved it as they scored 17 unanswered points in the first 36 minutes before Tommy Reffell dotted down at the back of a rolling maul. Jamie Shillcock missed out on the conversion as the teams completed the opening half with a 8-17 scoreline.

Leicester continued to enjoy the momentum into the second half as Solomone Kata was beneficiary of another rolling maul. Shillcock once again missed out on the conversion but Carreras landed a penalty goal to keep Gloucester in a lead of 13-20. Leicester clawed their way back into the game as Jasper Wiese exhibited great power to force his way over but Shillock missed a third conversion.

Shillcock made amends for his mistakes in the 71st minute when he collected a well timed pass from Jack van Poortvliet to dot down and also followed with the conversion to make it 23-20 before Varney latching on an offload from Seb Blake dived in the corner to complete a thrilling win for Gloucester.

Team line up:

Leicester Tigers: Steward; Bassett, Kelly, Kata, Hassell-Collins; Shillcock, B Youngs; Cronin, Montoya, Cole; Wells, O Chessum, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese.

Reserves: Theobald-Thomas, Whitcombe, Heyes, Hatherell, Cracknell, Van Poortvliet, Wilkinson, Cokanasiga.

Gloucester: Evans; May, Llewellyn, S Atkinson, Hathaway; Carreras, S Varney; Vivas, Blake, Gotovtsev' Clarke, Jordan, Ackermann, Clement, Mercer.

Reserves: McBurney, Elrington, Ford-Robinson, Clark, Thomas, Tuisue, Chapman, Harris.