Warriors fought hard but were punished for their mistakes by a ruthless Leicester side who bounced back from two straight defeats to re-assert themselves at the top of the Gallagher Premiership.
Warriors in with a chance of returning home with a losing bonus point until Tommy Reffell went over for Leicester’s fifth try four minutes from time, but on this occasion the final scoreline reflected the balance of the game.
Leicester were clinical when they had opportunities to get their powerful driving maul running and Warriors struggled to contain it.
Warriors lost Christian Judge and Niall Annett to the sin-bin in the space of a minute late in the first half, offences which led to a penalty try and left Warriors to play nine minutes either side of half-time with 13 men.
Warriors did battle their way back into the game with three penalties from Billy Searle and an 80metres interception try from Alex Hearle, who snaffled a floated pass from Freddie Burns as Leicester went in search of a try.
But Reffell’s try, from a swift counter-attack, put the bonus point out reach for Warriors in a contest that they knew was always likely to prove challenging.
Warriors had Leicester rattled early on when they played with patience in attack but the pressure went unrewarded and instead it was Tigers who opened the scoring after nine minutes.
It came from left wing Hosea Saumaki who stepped out of some hesitant tackling to score a soft try although Warriors reduced the gap ten minutes later when Billy Searle landed a penalty which came after another period of sustained pressure.
Burns cancelled out that score with a penalty after Warriors collapsed a maul and Leicester then scored two tries in a six minute period during which time Warriors went down to 13 men.
Burns nipped in for the first, which he also converted, after a series of close-range attacks and that was followed by a penalty try when Warriors illegally collapsed two driving mauls.
Judge was yellow-carded for the first offence and Annett joined him in the sin bin when he took down the second from which referee Luke Pearce marched under the posts and awarded Leicester seven points.
Warriors did well to get through the last seven minutes of the half without conceding any more points or having to scrum while they were two forwards down.
Instead Searle landed his second penalty after Warriors had played with composure to keep Leicester in their own 22 and go offside under pressure.
Searle struck again seven minutes into the second half, by which time Warriors were back to 15 men but Leicester spent most of the second half in attack and they turned pressure into points when Hanro Liebenberg went over from close range for the bonus point score.
Hearle’s poacher’s try, which gave the young wing the chance to show his pace, was converted by Searle and put Warriors within another converted try of a bonus point.
But Warriors could not work themselves into attacking positions for long enough and it was Leicester who capitalised with Reffell rounding off a flowing attack that started on halfway.
Leicester ended the match with 13 men after Olly Robinson and Saumaki were sin-binned in quick succession in injury-time as Warriors searched in vain for another try.
Warriors | 15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Perry Humphreys (Doel 62), 13 Francois Venter (Howe 66), 12 Ashley Beck, 11 Alex Hearle (Miller 42-47), 10 Billy Searle, 9 Gareth Simpson (Chudley 73), 1 Ethan Waller (Owen 60), 2 Niall Annett (Miller 69), 3 Christian Judge (Tyack 66), 4 Joe Batley (Dodd 42-60 & 66)), 5 Justin Clegg, 6 Kyle Hatherell, 7 Ted Hill (C), 8 Matt Kvesic (Tyack 41-42) (Vailanu 60).
Replacements | 16 Isaac Miller, 17 Kai Owen, 18 Jay Tyack, 19 Tom Dodd, 20 Sione Vailanu, 21 Will Chudley, 22 Tom Howe, 23 Harri Doel.
Timeline
9m | Saumaki try 5-0
19m | Searle pen 5-3
23m | Bunrs pen 8-3
27m | Burns try 13-3
28m | Burns con 15-3
33m | Penalty try 22-3
37m | Searle pen 22-6
47m | Searl pen 22-9
51m | Liebenberg try 27-9
52m | Burns con 29-9
59m | Hearle try 29-14
60m | Searle con 29-16
76m | Reffell try 34-16
77m | Burns con 36-16