Tigers scored 11 tries in total in a match which saw a number of first-team squad members given valuable game time.
Captain Matt Cornwell scored a fine hat-trick at The Bay, as did England Saxons No.8 Jordan Crane. There were also tries for Johne Murphy, Matt Smith, Leon Lloyd, Ben Herring and Greig Tonks in what proved to be a useful exercise for the club.
An under-strength Nottingham side acquitted themselves well, especially after trailing 32-0 at the break, but the result was never in doubt against a Tigers team with far too much strtength up front and an equal amount of fire power out wide.
After watching the game from the sidelines, forwards coach Richard Cockerill felt that the match had served its purpose. "It was a good workout," said Cockerill. "It was a competitive game, even if the score didn't reflect that. We had a number of players who hadn't played for a while and it was valuable match practice."
That sentiment was echoed by Tigers' head of rugby development Andy Key, who felt the younger players also benefited greatly from the presence of the senior squad members.
"We set ourselves targets that were all about performance and I think we stuck to those pretty well," said Key. "As well as being a good exercise in terms of game time for the first-teamers, I was really pleased with the performance of the younger guys. Mauricio Keiserie has only just come back from injury and I thought he stepped up well. It was great to see Tom McGregor also make the step up in the second row and Greg Sammons is a real dog who battled for the whole game. Ben Youngs and Greig Tonks also did well when they came on, so they were lots of positives for the academy lads. The senior guys always look after the youngsters when they come in and they did that again tonight."
Cornwell, who was making his first start since the PwC Challenge match against Argentina on February 11 also enjoyed his evening's work.
"There were a lot of guys like myself who haven't played much rugby recently so it was definitely a worthwhile exercise," said Cornwell. "A few of us were really gagging for a game so it was great to get out there to be honest. We're looking forward to pushing on now and trying to retain our Guinness A League title. As far as the first team's concerned, we all want to be involved because that's what it's all about."
Tigers Development XV
15 Johne Murphy
14 Leon Lloyd
13 Matt Smith
12 Matt Cornwell (capt)
11 Tom Varndell
10 Paul Burke
9 Scott Bemand
1 Alex Moreno
2 Greg Sammons
3 Dave Young
4 Ian Nimmo
5 Tom McGregor
6 Mauricio Keiserie
7 Ben Herring
8 Jordan Crane
Replacements
Mitchell Culpin for Smith
Matt Parr for Keiserie
James Buckland for Herring
Greig Tonks for Burke
Ben Youngs for Bemand
