Pollard lifts Leicester and delights Cheika

Sometimes it helps having a double World Cup champion in your side. There are numerous reasons why Leicester overturned an 11-point deficit to win a thrilling contest against Gloucester. Their experienced bench played a role, as did greater accuracy in the backline after a disjointed opening. They rode their luck on occasion and it did not hurt playing against the most porous defence in the league.

- Daniel Gallan

A key factor, though, was the presence at fly-half of Handré Pollard, who scored a crucial try at the start of the second half while kicking nine points in a three-point win.

The Springbok pivot missed for the first time this season on 23 minutes when he failed to convert Ollie Hassell-Collins's wonder finish. That shank against the upright felt costly at the time as a little later Max Llewellyn bagged his second and Gloucester's third try to take a healthy, and deserved, 19-8 lead into the break.

Shortly after the break - during which Leicester's head coach, Michael Cheika, brought out the hairdryer on "the very lowest setting", as he put it - the Tigers had a penalty within touching distance of the try line. They opted to tap and go and from neat interplay, including quick hands from Julián Montoya, Pollard had it on a blind run. After taking an initial hit, he powered over under the posts.

Rugby games so often have turning points; moments when momentum shifts and everything that had come before feels immaterial. This was it. And as soon as Pollard added the extras the result seemed inevitable.