Tries from Jordan Crane, Graham Kitchener, Blaine Scully, Dan Bowden and Thomas Waldrom secured a 31-6 triumph which briefly took the defending champions back to the top of the Aviva Premiership table.
“It’s ‘job done’ really, we got the win and the five points, and we can take a lot of positives out of it with players coming back in and getting game-time which can only help them in coming weeks,” said backs coach Paul Burke at the final whistle.
Tigers welcomed back Manu Tuilagi, Toby Flood, Ben Youngs and Graham Kitchener following injury and gave first starts of the season for Scully, Neil Briggs, Boris Stankovich, Thomas Waldrom and Jamie Gibson. Tom Bristow also made his debut from the bench in the second half.
“Some of those guys were playing for the first time this season,” said Burke. “Some of them haven’t even played in pre-season, so it is important for us to get them back out on the pitch.
“We rested a lot of players today to give an opportunity to a few of the other guys to come in. You have to trust your squad. It was important for those individuals to get some game-time under their belts.”
Tigers claimed three tries in the opening 34 minutes and twice more during the second half, including one from American international full-back Scully on his Aviva Premiership debut, to make it 11 points from the opening three rounds.
Burke added: “We started pretty well, then we tried to over-play it a bit and started to play a bit deep in our own half at times which allowed them to come forward.
“There was a bit of rustiness but it was a first hit-out for a lot of the guys and, on the whole, we’ll take the bonus point and move on to Exeter away next week.”
