This is becoming a habit. For the third time in this calendar year, Leicester came to Kingsholm and won a Guinness Premiership match, and the locals do not like it. Many among a crowd 3,000 short of capacity left yesterday before the final whistle, seething that Gloucester had thrown away two clear-cut chances to put behind them the defeat by Leicester in the play-offs last May.

Instead, Leicester, who every time they reached Gloucester's 22 seemed to concede a penalty, watched the pendulum swing their way. They had squeezed Gloucester's scrum in the first half, in the second they dismembered the home lineout, but they could not make the set-piece advantage tell. They prospered, though, from Gloucester's lack of judgment and, in the end, indiscipline.

Luke Narraway and Carlos Nieto butchered try-scoring chances on the overlap before Gloucester's work at the breakdown broke down and they were penalised by David Pearson, the referee; Leicester broke to create a try for Geordan Murphy and, in the final minute, Toby Flood intercepted James Simpson-Daniel's telegraphed pass and ran in from 45 metres.

Dean Ryan, who coached Gloucester to the head of the Premiership table last season, is fast running out of patience. “That was a big game we should have won and we keep doing the same things, that's the frustration,” Ryan, the head coach, said. “The template we have created is enough so we have to look at the individuals who are playing, why they make the choices they do and if they make choices outside our template.”

The leading close-season signings, Olly Barkley and Greg Somerville, have yet to take the field, but Ryan cast doubts over whether there is the strength of character in the squad assembled against Leicester to take the club forward. “We can be a very good side, but to be a great side you have to be dragged across the line by the players, by a dominant individual or group of individuals,” he said.

None of which will stifle Leicester's pleasure at achieving a rare treble within the space of eight months. Aaron Mauger's withdrawal yesterday morning, still recovering from a blow to the head in the previous weekend's pre-season game, left them shorn of five players. They forced Gloucester to concede territory, but were unable to beat the home side's scramble defence.

Flood opened his account for his new club with two penalty goals after an early miss and watched Ryan Lamb fail three times. Critically for Leicester, they held firm when Ben Herring spent ten minutes in the sin-bin for obstruction; they did concede a try in the corner to Olly Morgan, Gloucester taking advantage of the five-metre gap now enforced behind set scrums, but it might have been much worse because for a short period they had to defend with only 13 men while Alesana Tuilagi received attention.

Morgan's brilliant chase of a high ball gave Andy Titterrell a run to the posts, but the hooker was held up over the line. Lamb finally found his range and gave his side the lead with a penalty early in the second half, but the game turned within three minutes. Willie Walker, Lamb's replacement at fly half, grub-kicked through, Julien Dupuy was caught on his own line and the ball sped left. Narraway, confident in everything he did, had Lesley Vainikolo in support but chose to turn inside, to be caught by a despairing cover, and Gloucester were penalised. Leicester kicked out to a lineout near halfway, Marcos Ayerza and Jordan Crane broke into midfield with Dupuy and Flood sent Murphy through.

Gloucester then repeated the dose, working the ball right before carving left, where Nieto ignored a two-man support and was dragged down, with salt rubbed into Gloucester wounds as Anthony Allen departed on a stretcher with a damaged heel. Flood's interception was, for Gloucester's longsuffering supporters, the final straw.

Scorers: Gloucester: Try: Morgan (26min). Penalty goal: Lamb (44). Leicester: Tries: Murphy (69), Flood (79). Conversions: Dupuy, Flood. Penalty goals: Flood 2 (17, 20).
Scoring sequence (Gloucester first): 0-3, 0-6, 5-6 (half-time), 8-6, 8-13, 8-20.
Gloucester: O Morgan; J Simpson-Daniel, M Tindall, A Allen (rep: M Watkins, 73), L Vainikolo; R Lamb (rep: W Walker, 60), R Lawson (rep: G Cooper, 66); N Wood (rep: D Young, 58), A Titterrell (rep: O Azam, 43), C Nieto, W James, M Bortolami (rep: A Brown, 51), P Buxton, A Strokosch (rep: A Hazell, 70), L Narraway.
Leicester: G Murphy; A Tuilagi (rep: T Youngs, 41), M Smith, D Hipkiss, T Varndell; T Flood, H Ellis (rep: J Dupuy, 58); M Ayerza, G Chuter (rep: B Kayser, 51), J White, R Blaze, B Kay (rep: M Wentzel, 60), T Croft, B Herring (sin-bin, 24-34; rep: B Woods, 63), J Crane.
Referee: D Pearson.
Attendance: 13,106