Warriors were, in the words of Head Coach Jonathan Thomas, “steamrollered” by a Leicester Tigers side who produced a dominant and complete performance.
There was a period in the third quarter, when Leicester were down to 14 men with Hanro Liebenberg in the sin bin, that Warriors took the game to the Tigers.
But a long period of pressure went unrewarded and it was Leicester who scored the only points during that period when they launched a counter-attack and Richard Wigglesworth crossed for the bonus point try and the score that broke the resistance.
Giant wing Nemani Nadolo caused problems for the defence, helping to set up two of Leicester’s seven tries and powering over for another himself.
George Ford’s clever tactical kicking kept Warriors on the retreat and with the collisions and set pieces also going the way of a physical Leicester pack, all Warriors had to show for a frustrating afternoon was a first half penalty from Billy Searle.
Warriors found themselves ten points down inside 13 minutes as Ford gave Leicester the lead with a sixth minute penalty then Harry Potter conjured up a try after Warriors had checked a driving maul.
Potter found a gap and nipped in for the try which Ford improved before Searle puled back three points with a long-range penalty midway through the first half.
But Leicester continued to play a pragmatic game with Ford kicking for territory and Leicester using possession to build the pressure.
They found another gap when centre Mathias Moroni rounded off a sustained attack and another from a lineout drive which ended in hooker Julian Montoya smuggling his way over.
Warriors eventually lifted the siege and played their best rugby of the first period in injury-time when Leicester gave away a succession of penalties but a promising attack broke down when a Leicester player got a hand to the ball and knocked on.
Warriors dominated the third quarter but could not convert possession and territory into points and Wigglesworth’s try after Nadolo had opened up the defence proved the killer blow.
After that replacement hooker Nic Dolly, Nadolo and Burns crossed, rounding off sustained attacks that put the seal on Leicester’s fifth straight win.
Warriors | 15 Harri Doel, 14 Perry Humphreys, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Francois Venter (CC), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Billy Searle (Smith 59), 9 Will Chudley (Simpson 56), 1 Rory Sutherland (Waller 59), 2 Scott Baldwin (CC) (Miller 48-59), 3 Christian Judge (Tyack 53), 4 Andrew Kitchener (Batley 53), 5 Justin Clegg, 6 Kyle Hatherell, 7 Sam Lewis, 8 Sione Vailanu (Kvesic 70).
Replacements | 16 Isaac Miller, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Jay Tyack, 19 Joe Batley, 20 Matt Kvesic, 21 Gareth Simpson, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Oli Morris.
Timeline
6m | Ford pen 0-3
12m | Potter try 0-8
13m | Ford con 0-10
17m | Searle pen 3-10
27m | Moroni try 3-15
33m | Montoya try 3-20
34m | Ford con 3-22
58m | Wigglesworth try 3-27
59m | Ford con 3-29
69m | Dolly try 3-34
72m | Nadolo try 3-39
73m | Burns con 3-41
76m | Burns try 3-46
77m | Burns con 3-48
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