Harsh welcome for London Welsh
Leicester showed Premiership newboys London Welsh the standards required to thrive in the top-flight as they cruised to a 38-13 victory at the Kassam Stadium on Sunday.
Championship winners Welsh had to go through a Rugby Football Union appeals process just to get to the Premiership, but their efforts might be in vain unless they can improve on this nervous display in their first game of the season.
They were completely out-classed by Leicester, who never looked back after two Thomas Waldrom tries helped them open up a 17-0 lead.
Tries from Tom Arscott and Hudson Tonga'uiha gave Welsh a glimmer of hope.
But second half scores from Geoff Parling, Julian Salvi and Vereniki Goneva sealed Leicester's victory, with fly-half Toby Flood converting all five tries and a penalty for a 13-point haul.
Gordon Ross's penalty was all Welsh could muster after the break.
The scorers:
For London Welsh:
Tries: Arscott, Tonga'uiha
Pen: Ross
For Leicester:
Tries: Waldrom 2, Parling, Salvi, Goneva
Cons: Flood 5
Pen: Flood
Teams:
London Welsh: 15 Tom Arscott, 14 Phil MacKenzie, 13 Sonny Parker, 12. Hudson Tonga'uiha, 11 Joe Ajuwa, 10 Gordon Ross, 9 Jonah Holmes, 8 Daniel Browne, 7 Lee Beach, 6 Ed Williamson, 5 Kirill Kulemin, 4 Jonathan Mills (captain), 3 Paulica Ion, 2 Neil Briggs, 1 Franck Montanella.
Replacements: 16 Greg Bateman, 17 Tom Bristow, 18 Arthur Joly, 19 Martin Purdy, 20 Alfie To'oala, 21 Nick Runciman, 22 Seb Jewell, 23 Nick Scott.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (captain), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Micky Young, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Steve Mafi, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Rob Andrew, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Logovi'i Mulipola.
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Martin Castrogiovanni, 19 Brett Deacon, 20 Jordan Crane, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 George Ford, 23 Matt Smith.
Referee: JP Doyle
Assistant Referees: Nigel Carrick and Andrew Watson
TMO: Geoff Warren