Gloucester still lead the Premiership but they failed the acid test of all potential champions last night. Next month will see the fifth anniversary of Leicester's last home league defeat and Gloucester never remotely looked likely to spoil those celebrations.
Gloucester are now only four points ahead of the champions after a stirring display in the Tigers' back row by the All Black Josh Kronfeld, scorer of two similar first-half tries, and they look unlikely to retain that lead by next spring.
A thoroughly miserable night, often so combustible that we might have expected to see Green Goddesses appearing on the touchline, was completed for Gloucester when their French fly-half Ludovic Mercier was carried off after a quarter of an hour.
Terry Fanolua, Gloucester's centre, put a gloss on the score with an interception try six minutes before the end and Gloucester were far more defiant after the break, denying Leicester a bonus point. But the Tigers' all-round power and pace suggests a fifth successive title is not beyond them.
In theory, with only three players on duty at Twickenham today, Gloucester might have had the edge on Leicester, who had twice as many in the England squad. But Leicester's deep well of talent still meant they could field a side containing four international forwards.
But it was Gloucester who drew first blood when they attacked from a lineout deep in their own territory and Henry Paul gave the captain Jake Boer the first try.
Sam Vesty immediately pulled some points back with a close-range penalty but Mercier's kicks kept the Tigers in their own half before Leon Lloyd scored a try in the opposite corner.
Gloucester's problems in creased when Mercier was carried off and the game degenerated into a series of punch-ups, the third resulting in a warning for Gloucester's French hooker Olivier Azam.
From the resulting penalty Leicester won a lineout and Kronfeld was driven over for Leicester's second try, and a third in the same manner 12 minutes later. This time Vesty converted and the gap between the sides became something of a chasm.
When Junior Paramore was sent to the sin-bin in the dying moments of the first half for knocking the ball from Harry Ellis's hands, a miserable 40 minutes for Gloucester was complete.
Facing Leicester in this mood with 14 men was never a good idea but Gloucester held out until Paramore returned. Play, though, in the third quarter was mostly confined to in or around the visitors' 22.
Gloucester brought on their England hopeful, the spring-heeled flanker Jamie Forrester, but a few moments later another key member of the England academy, the wing Marcel Garvey, was carried off. All in all this was a bleak night for the Cherry and Whites.
Leicester: Lloyd; Tuilagi, Smith, Kafer, Booth; Vesty, Ellis (Tierney, 79); Freshwater (Tournaire, 64), West (Chuter, 64), Garforth, Deacon, Corry, W Johnson, Kronfeld, Balding.
Tries: Lloyd, Kronfeld 2. Con: Vesty. Pen: Vesty.
Gloucester: Paul; Garvey (Beim, 64), Fanolua, Todd, Delport; Mercier (Catling, 16), Stuart-Smith; Roncero, Azam, Deacon, Eustace (Fidler, 57), Cornwell, Buxton (Forrester, 59), Boer, Paramore.
Tries: Boer, Fanolua. Con: Paul. Pen: Paul.
Sin-bin: Paramour, 40.
Referee: D Pearson (Northumberland).
