Gloucester fly-half Freddie Burns, a late inclusion for the hosts, scored all of their points with two penalties and two drop goals.

Tigers made three changes to the starting line-up. Aaron Mauger returned at centre to captain the side, Brett Deacon took the No6 shirt and Johne Murphy came in on the wing. Lote Tuqiri made his first appearance in the Guinness Premiership on the opposite wing. Anthony Allen returned to play at Kingsholm for the first time since leaving Gloucester in the summer and hooker Mefin Davies also lined up against his former club.

Burns was one of three late changes in the Gloucester backline. Wing James Simpson-Daniel and fly-half Nicky Robinson failed late fitness tests in the hour before kick-off and were replaced by Tom Voyce and Burns respectively. And just before kick-off Olly Morgan withdrew. Voyce moved to full-back and Charlie Sharples come in on the wing. Carlos Spencer and Jonny May were added to the replacements' bench.

A clean catch and break by Murphy set Tigers on an early attack. Ben Youngs and Mauger joined in before Jordan Crane's attempted grubber for Tuqiri was cleaned up by Sharples.

Tigers had begun the game well and Sharples was alert again to gather Mauger's chip and dot down behind his line ahead of Allen. Tigers put the pressure on at the resulting scrum and were awarded a penalty, which Staunton kicked to put Tigers 3-0 up after 11 minutes.

Gloucester hit back and took points from their first period of pressure. Burns and Will James made initial breaks to take play into the 22 and when the Gloucester forwards took up the drive, Tigers conceded a penalty in front of the posts which was converted by Burns.

England Under-20 international Burns then added a second penalty midway through the half to edge the hosts ahead for the first time in the game.

Tigers were given the chance to draw level five minutes later. A tap and go by Youngs earned another penalty for the Gloucester defence failing to retreat but Staunton miscued his 40m kick.

Burns extended the Gloucester lead when he worked a drop goal with the advantage of a penalty before Staunton's second penalty moments later cut the Gloucester lead to 9-6. In converting the penalty Staunton became the first player to 100 Guinness Premiership points this season.

Burns missed the chance to extend the Gloucester lead on the stroke of half-time when he struck the left post with his fourth penalty.

Clean line-out ball laid the platform for Burns to extend the Gloucester lead with his second drop goal three minutes after the restart.

But Tigers exploited Burns' kick to touch on the full moments later. Gloucester went offside at the resulting line-out and Staunton slotted his third penalty to leave Tigers 12-9 behind after 46 minutes.

The game was opening up in the third quarter. First Tigers stole line-out ball eight metres out and spun it to the right where Murphy was closed down. Then a break by replacement fly-half Spencer took Gloucester into the Tigers 22 before Jake Boer was whistled for coming in at the side.

It signalled a sustained period of Gloucester pressure. Their scrum-half Dave Lewis darted through a gap at the back of a line-out and made 30m. He kicked ahead looking for Lesley Vainikolo but Murphy was alert and mopped up the danger. Another Lewis break took Gloucester to within five metres but determined defence, first from Allen and then from Geoff Parling kept Gloucester out. The Cherry and Whites kept the ball alive and it took a big hit by Hamilton to stop Henry Trinder with the line in sight.

Hamilton then stopped Vainikolo's break down the left but was adjudged to have offended at the breakdown and was given a yellow card by referee Sean Davey with nine minutes left. Spencer was off target with the penalty.

It had been a tremendous defensive effort by Tigers and they finished the game on the front foot.

Youngs pushed a testing penalty from 45m to the left of the posts but Tigers kept the pressure on and looked to have fashioned an overlap in the final minute. However, Tuqiri was unable to gather the ball at his feet and the Gloucester defence cleared to touch.