Leicester Tigers made light work of Aviva Premiership newcomers when they eased to a 13-38 victory over London Welsh at the Kassam Stadium on Sunday.
Whilst making their Premiership debut London Welsh were MOST competitive in the first half with the Tigers just 10-17 ahead at the interval.
Leicester had been 0-17 up through two converted Thomas Waldrom tries and a Toby Flood penalty before Welsh responded with scores from Tom Arscott and Hudson Tonga'uiha.
As expected, the Midlands' side moved away after the break with Geoff Parling, Julian Salvi and Vereniki Goneva all crossing the whitewash.
If ever there was a consolation in facing one of England's most decorated clubs in their opening encounter, it is that Leicester are traditionally slow starters.
But any initial hopes were dashed by a powerful Tigers' outfit. After easing themselves into the match, last years' losing finalists displayed their forward dominance.
Flood opened the scoring with a penalty before the prolific Waldrom scored his first try of the season, the fly-half adding the extras from out wide.
The same players combined for Leicester's next seven points as the number eight went over from a driving maul which was once again converted.
However, to their credit, Welsh continued to compete physically with the visitors and they were rewarded with their first ever five-pointer in the Premiership through Arscott.
It got even better for the hosts as Tonga'uiha took advantage of some slack Tigers' defence to scamper across the whitewash and reduce the deficit at half-time.
Leicester started the second period as they did the first and were rewarded with a third try from Parling, who raced away after a neatly timed off-load from Anthony Allen.
Gordon Ross briefly halted the visitors' momentum with a penalty, but Salvi went over from close range to secure the bonus-point.
And a further touchdown from Goneva sealed a ninth successive regular season victory for the Welford Road-based outfit.
Final Score London Welsh 13 (10) Leicester Tigers 38 (17)
Scorers
London Welsh
Tries: Arscott, Tonga'uiha
Pen: Ross
Leicester
Tries: Waldrom 2, Parling, Salvi, Goneva
Cons: Flood 5
Pen: Flood
Match Officials
Referee: JP Doyle (43rd Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Carrick and Andrew Watson
TMO: Geoff Warren.
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, 1. Franck Montanella, 2. Neil Briggs, 3. Paulica Ion, 4. Jonathan Mills (c), 5. Kirill Kulemin, 6. Ed Williamson, 7. Lee Beach, 8. Daniel Browne.
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 (c), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Micky Young, 1 Logovi'i Mulipola, 2 Tom Youngs, 3 Dan Cole, 4 Rob Andrew, 5 Geoff Parling, 6 Steve Mafi, 7 Julian Salvi, 8 Thomas Waldrom
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,
