Lead out by Finn Carnduff, the fourth youngest player to captain the club in a competitive match, Tigers produced an all-action display to claim victory against local rivals Nottingham Rugby.

A cold and grey day in Leicester bode ominously for lovers of mercurial rugby but Tigers tore out of the blocks with an unstoppable early display of attacking excellence – a try bonus point achieved in 15 minutes with a sixth scored inside half an hour leaving an unassailable lead for the visitors to chase.

A break in the opening minute almost saw wing Will Wand whip out a spectacular chip and chase, just knocking the ball on at the line, and from there everything just stuck.

Kyle Hatherell sets the tone, a monstrous hard line flattening the attempted tackler and setting up and simple two on one, executed to put Joseph Woodward over for the opening score.

From a shuddering line break to a silky one, fly half Ben Volavola doubled the lead moments later, the Fijian ghosting through the line with a show and go and turned on the afterburners to score in the corner.

The captain made it three two minutes later, silky hands freed Carnduff and allowed the flanker an inch of space to touch down in the corner.

With just over a quarter of an hour played, the try bonus point was secured, hooker Finn Theobald-Thomas finishing a picture-perfect line out routine, the ball claimed high and Theobald-Thomas taking it on the wrap-around, straightening up and barreling through the covering scrum half to score.

A simple score from Tom Manz saw a driving maul falling short before short carries eventually saw Manz find space to touch down; the sixth followed shortly afterward, Tom Whiteley sniping from a five metre scrum.

Full credit to Nottingham, who continued to fight and got their reward with a score before the break, flanker Kody Vereti the beneficiary as the Archers fought their way to the line through successive incremental gains and short carries.

Half time score: Leicester Tigers 38 – 7 Nottingham Rugby

The second half picked up where the first left off, both sides battling for that next score; the visitors enjoyed possession in the opening minutes before Carnduff showed great awareness to intercept and win the ball back.

However, with possession ceded through a knock on, Nottingham came again and made it count with a second score, this time through a strong line from centre Levi Roper.

Nottingham continue to hold the ball and ten minutes later they scored their third – it could have been a couple of minutes earlier had Tigers not held the ball up from hard-carrying forward but, after Leicester had cleared their lines, Nottingham floated a delicate chip over the onrushing defence for wing David Williams to run onto, the captain bagging the Archers third.

Leicester finally wrestled control back from here, a raft of substitutions, including a debut for prop Xavier Valentine, making an impact - the highlight of this period saw Malelili Satala hit a chip and chase and the wing smash the unfortunate catcher and win a turnover in enemy territory.

Finally it's captain Carnduff who breaks Tigers' second half deadlock, the flanker tackled but having enough wherewithal to scramble out of it, extend his arm and touch down at a distance.

Seconds later and the game is put to bed, wing George Pearson spotting an ambitious pass from the visitors and picking it out of the air, running it home from the halfway line.

Pearson gets the final word of the match, stepping around two tacklers before darting through and riding the tackle to slam the ball down as the referee's whistle goes.  

Final score: Leicester Tigers 57 - 19 Nottingham Rugby