Bristol (14) 17
Tries: L Arscott, Lemi Cons: Barnes 2 Pen: Barnes

Leicester (7) 23
Tries: Cole, Hipkiss Cons: Dupuy, Vesty Pens: Vesty 3

Bristol's Shaun Perry is tackled by the Leicester defence

Leicester moved to the top of the Premiership with a hard-fought victory over relegation-favourites Bristol.

Leicester prop Dan Cole opened the scoring with a try under the posts, with Julian Dupuy adding the extras.

But Bristol hit back with a try from Luke Arscott before David Lemi gave the home side a 14-7 half-time lead with a score five minutes before the interval.

Three penalties from Tom Vesty put the Tigers back in charge before Dan Hipkiss's converted try sealed the win.

Although it was a less-than convincing performance against the Premiership's bottom side, the victory extends Leicester's winning run to four matches.

Former England hooker Mark Regan made his 200th Premiership appearance for Bristol, who missed early opportunities to take the lead inside the first quarter.

And Cole made them pay when he picked the ball up from a ruck and skipped past two tackles to touch down for a try, with scrum-half Dupuy adding a simple conversion.

But Arscott hit back immediately when he combined with Robert Sidoli, with fly-half Ed Barnes adding the extras.

And a well-worked move through the backs allowed Lemi to run through from 20m on 35 minutes.

Two penalties from Vesty reduced the arrears to a point before a Barnes three-pointer gave Bristol the edge.

But a sniping run replacement from scrum-half Ben Youngs allowed Hipkiss to touch down under the posts as Vesty added the extras as well as a last-minute penalty to ensure Leicester maintain top spot in the Premiership.

Bristol head coach Paul Hull:
"We are bitterly disappointed by the defeat. We do want good performances, we do want to improve our game plan, but at the end of the day you do want to win games.

"We got ourselves in a very good position at half-time and we started the second half quite strongly. But nine penalties and a free-kick against us didn't contribute to us getting any field position and Leicester capitalised on that.

"This is our fourth week of training and working towards my philosophy as a coach but it is going to take time. I know that and so do the players are they are excited about playing the new style.

"I have only been in charge for a few weeks and we had a good meeting of the players and coaches where we set out our goals. We know where we are, we can't change that but what we will do is try to improve our performances.

"The players are enjoying training and hopefully enjoying the game. They don't enjoy losing but there is hope for the future.

"I thought my first win was tonight, I thought that win was a couple of weeks ago against Harlequins but it will come. I am fully confident that win will come hopefully sooner rather than later."

Leicester acting head coach Richard Cockerill:
"We did some good things in the first half but we coughed up a lot of chances, which has been a trait in the past few weeks. But with the injuries that occurred early on, the tide turned against us.

"Bristol took their tries very well, they were from our mistakes but they still had to score them. We were under a little bit of pressure and getting a little flustered.

"We had them under a lot of pressure and they gave a lot of penalties away. In the end we probably deserved to win although it was very close, but I was expecting that having played here over the past 15 years.

"It is not an easy place to win regardless and look at their results - apart from the odd one, they have all been very close."

Bristol : L Arscott; T Arscott, N Brew, N Brew, Lemi; Barnes, Perry; Clarke, Regan, Crompton, Winters, Sidoli, To'oala, El Abd, Ward-Smith.
Replacements: Thomas for Perry (78), Irish for Clarke (56), Sambucetti for Winters (56), R Pennycook for To'oala (56).
Not Used: Hayes, Thompson, Ashwin.

Leicester: Hamilton; Smith, Hipkiss, Mauger, Tuilagi; Vesty, Dupuy; Ayerza, Davies, Cole, L Deacon, Kay, Wentzel, Woods, Pienaar.
Replacements: Varndell for Smith (14), Youngs for Dupuy (25), Bonorino for Cole (73), Herring for Wentzel (38).
Not Used: Chuter, Hemingway, Hougaard.

Att: 6,037

Ref: Greg Garner (RFU).

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