As the England team manager Martin Johnson ponders how to turn England from a side conditioned to stopping opponents into one comfortable taking the initiative, his return to his old stamping ground provided some encouragement in the form of the Tigers' wing forward, Tom Croft.
The 23-year-old has been used primarily by England as a replacement second row in the Six Nations. While Croft headed the lineout take as Leicester overcame the leaders Gloucester with a considerable something to spare, it was his speed around the pitch and awareness that most stood out.
Leicester failed to score a try despite dominating territory and possession – relying on seven penalties out of 10 attempts by the scrum-half Julien Dupuy and a drop goal by the full-back Geordan Murphy from close to his own 10-yard line – but on another day they would have had eight. Croft was one of three players to cross the line, but he was called back for a forward pass by Alesana Tuilagi.
He was on the right wing then and shortly after he was standing on the left waiting for a potential try-scoring pass from the prop Marcos Ayerza that was knocked on by the last defender, Rory Lawson, who received a yellow card for not attempting to catch the ball. When Croft, back on the left wing, looked as if he would get his try 11 minutes into the second half, after a swift counter-attack following a turnover, he was hauled down yards short of the Gloucester line by the wing Iain Balshaw.
"Leicester are playing fast, expansive rugby and players are finding space for me," said Croft. "As a club, we are developing momentum at the right time in the season. I have not thought about starting for England: it is an honour to have been in the match 22 this year and I am happy just to be involved.
"England's style of play is down to Martin Johnson and the coaches. We were criticised after narrow defeats in Wales and Ireland and I am sure that when we get on the right side of the penalty count we will start to beat teams. We are moving in the right direction and you can see in the Premiership how sides have adjusted to the law variations." Leicester's acting head coach, Richard Cockerill, added: "We were the only team that played any rugby and it was our best performance for a while," while he also admitted he was interested in the job on a full-time basis.
Leicester G Murphy; Hamilton, Smith, Mauger (capt), Tuilagi; Vesty, Dupuy; Ayerza, Kayser (Davies, 77), White (Castrogiovanni, 58), L Deacon, Kay (Wentzel, 53), Croft, Woods, Pienaar.
Pens Dupuy 7 Drop goal Murphy
Gloucester Morgan; Balshaw, Trinder, Barkley, Sharples (Foster, 76); Spencer, Lawson; Wood (Nieto, 71), Azam, Somerville, Eustace (Bortolami, 50), Brown, Narraway, Hazell (Strokosch, 58), Delve (capt).
Try Balshaw Con Barkley Pen Barkley
Sin-bin Lawson 40, Brown 66
Referee W Barnes (London)
Attendance 17,498
