Leicester responded to last week's Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat to Leinster in Dublin by saying they needed to learn from the experience. Getting the ball to Alesana Tuilagi more may be a start. The Samoa wing scored three tries in 14 minutes at the start of the second half after Gloucester had led 17-13 at the interval, but he did not finish on the winning side in what was the highest scoring draw in Premiership history.

Leicester have traditionally been in the business of handing out lessons, but their pre-eminence in England has not helped them in Europe in recent seasons. Today showed why. Leicester have metamorphosed from a side adept at grinding out victories and wearing down opponents into one of greater ambition, but at times they need to play with control; they too often flick the wrong switches. Their opponents, Gloucester, are themselves a side for whom the word expanse now means more than the girth of their front-rowers.

So a fixture that not so long ago would have involved two gnarled set of forwards hogging the ball had an air of frivolity from the start, as if the sun had removed inhibition. It was Super 15 rather than old school, both teams claiming a try bonus point and three in all. All cavaliers and no roundheads. And no generals.

The opening minutes belonged to Olly Morgan, the full-back whose England career has been blighted by injuries. He opened the scoring on five minutes, taking advantage of defensive uncertainty in Leicester's midfield as he ran on to the floated pass of the centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu following a lineout taken by the former Tiger Brett Deacon.

The lead lasted a matter of seconds. Billy Twelvetrees hoisted a high kick that fell to ground a few metres outside the Gloucester 22. Morgan was waiting and duly made the catch, but no sooner had he taken the ball than he found himself in the embrace of the prop Martin Castrogiovanni, who had made ground from an onside position.

Morgan had nowhere to go except to ground. He tried to hold on to the ball, Castrogiovanni fell on his right arm and the full-back's game was over. As help ran on, Leicester helped themselves to the turnover, even though Castrogiovanni flopped off his feet, and Ben Youngs looped a long pass to the right wing where Scott Hamilton had a free run to the line.

Morgan suffered a dislocated shoulder but Gloucester did not wilt. It was already a match of counter-thrusts with attack prevailing over defence. Leicester should have taken the lead when the wing Horacio Agulla found himself in space, only to spook himself, and had to fall back on a Toby Flood penalty. Freddie Burns failed to respond after Boris Stankovich was penalised at a ruck but he atoned by taking a quick penalty on halfway and releasing Fuimaono-Sapolu, the most perceptive player in a madcap match, for a 30-metre run to the line.

The half ended with Flood and Burns exchanging penalties. Gloucester were on the attack when the countdown clock reached zero, Deacon preferring to kick the ball out of play rather than risk another passing movement. He knew there would be a reaction and it came two minutes after the restart, Flood freeing the elder Tuilagi with a flick pass to charge through Henry Trinder and the Samoan then left Trinder on the ground again near halfway to put Leicester 10 points ahead and on course for victory.

Burns's second penalty did not stem the flow. A flowing move saw Manu Tuilagi free Hamilton, whose hopeful inside pass was seized by Alesana Tuilagi for the bonus point try and a 14-point lead. Ordinarily, it would have been enough but Gloucester are dangerous on the road against the better sides. They may have lost at Leeds and Newcastle, but they won at Northampton and Bath and within 10 minutes they were level through Andy Hazell, after Matt Cox took and gave a pass in one movement, and the replacement for the hapless Trinder, Tim Molenaar.

They profited from Leicester's refusal to tighten up. Twelvetrees restored the lead 10 minutes from time and there were 20 seconds to go when Jeremy Staunton only had to kick the ball downfield to end the match. He chose a long pass to Thomas Waldrom which was intercepted by Fuimaono-Sapolu, who had an unopposed 65-metre run to the line that silenced all but a couple of hundred in the crowd. The Tigers had never conceded more points at Welford Road in the league and they may be entertaining Gloucester in next month's play-off semi-final.