Leicester did all the work in the first half to beat Gloucester in their top-of-the-table Zurich Premiership clash.

Gloucester rocked the Tigers with a try by Jake Boer in the opening 90 seconds but former All-Black flanker Josh Kronfeld scored two tries to lead the Leicester fightback.

With fly-half Sam Vesty kicking the team into superb attacking positions the Tigers' forwards responded with some excellent play.

It was all the more impressive for the absence of several England forwards, who are preparing to face The Wallabies on Saturday.

Vesty had the home side back to 5-3 within three minutes with a penalty after Gloucester had infringed in front of the posts and then his tactical kicking came to the fore.

He set up the first real action for the home side in the 15th minute with a kick which gave them excellent field position in the left-hand corner.

When they managed to get the ball wide enough, winger Leon Lloyd dived over to put Leicester ahead.

And that left-hand corner proved fruitful again for the Tigers 10 minutes later.

Another Vesty kick set up a line-out and, after two drives either side of the ruck, New Zealand flanker Kronfeld was pushed over for the try.

Kronfeld was again the benefactor off a line-out drive in the 37th minute as he was again in the right place at the right time to claim his second try.

Vesty converted and, with Gloucester number eight Junior Paramore sin-binned for an infringement at the ruck in injury time, Leicester were well on top at 20-5 at half- time.

After their impressive work in the first half the Tigers were clearly exhausted and that prevented them killing off the game at the start of the second half when they had the chance.

With a man short, Gloucester were forced to defend desperately in the opening 10 minutes and several promising drives and back line moves all collapsed through a lack of clinical handling.

Having failed to kill the game the Tigers were fortunate that Gloucester then lacked the punch to punish them.

Several attacking moves broke down with handling errors and it took a smart intercept try from Gloucester centre Terry Fanolua in the 74th minute to give his team any real cutting edge.

Henry Paul converted to pull his team back to 20-12 but they could not summons the attacking invention to really test the Tigers.

However, Paul did kick a late penalty to earn the visitors a bonus point as narrow losers.

Teams:

Leicester: Lloyd, Tuilagi, Smith, Kafer, Booth, Vesty, Ellis, Freshwater, West, Garforth, Deacon, Corry, W. Johnson, Kronfeld, Balding.

Not Used: Short, Tournaire, Chuter, Gerry, Tierney, Raynor, Gelderbloom.

Tries: Lloyd, Kronfeld 2.

Cons: Vesty.

Pens: Vesty.

Gloucester: Paul, Garvey, Fanolua, Todd, Delport, Mercier, Stuart-Smith, Roncero, Azam, Deacon, Houston, Cornwell, Buxton, Boer, Paramore.

Not Used: Frape, Beim, Catling, Elloway, Irish, Forrester, Fidler.

Tries: Boer, Fanolua.

Cons: Paul.

Pens: Paul.

Att: 16,800

Ref: Dave Pearson (RFU).