Outstanding Ollie catches Tigers cold

Thorley scored four first-half tries but Gloucester were eventually made to work hard for the win by resurgent Tigers.

Gloucester were cruising with six scores on the board, but Harry Potter pulled a try back before the break and Jordan Taufua and Cameron Henderson both crossed to heap pressure on the Cherry & Whites who eventually responded with a try from Lloyd Evans to seal the win.

Gloucester attack coach Alex King said: “We lost a little bit of control in the second half, but I am really proud of the boys that they found a way to win.”

On England hopeful Thorley, King added: “His work with Jonny May and the other wingers at the club is crucial to how we want to play. Ollie scored four today, but the work of Jonny and Jason Woodward was outstanding as well. It is a collective effort.”

Gloucester’s 36-point first-half haul was the biggest in the club’s history – beating the 35 points they put on Bath at Kingsholm in their biggest-ever Premiership win in May 2002.

Thorley, 23, was at the heart of it with the quickOLLIE est-ever quartet of Premiership tries.

Joe Simpson went over for the first try after neat passing from Danny Cipriani and then Thorley put Leicester to the sword, completing his hat-trick in a 15-minute spell of almost faultless passing play as Cipriani and Billy Twelvetrees pulled the strings.

Thorley’s fourth saw him pick up the ball ten metres inside his own half and fly past Leicester’s defence to score in the right corner.

A minute later Tigers scored their first try as

Zach Henry broke through the defence and fed Potter to go over.

Replacements George Ford, Ben Youngs and Jordan gave confidence to a young starting XV and Taufua went over from close range on 54 minutes before Cameron Henderson scored a similar try five minutes later.

Ford added a penalty to close the gap to a converted try but Twelvetrees’ penalty with ten minutes to go increased the gap to nine points.

Evans broke through from 25m for Tigers’s seventh try as the Cherry and Whites finished with their highest-ever score against Leicester.

Leicester director of rugby Geordan Murphysaid: “We didn’t put ourselves in a position to win without a lot of hard work, so I think there are some really pleasing things.

“We were very disappointed with the first half. We’ve picked a very young, inexperienced side and the goal was to compete and to work very hard for each other and we did that.”