Rugby Lions suffered a bit of a drubbing in this last local derby of the season as Leicester Lions continue to dominate recent league games between the sides. But this was a bigger defeat that could not owe everything to Rugby missing the injured Matt Goode, though miss him they certainly did.

Rugby had a good opening spell when they might have scored a try and kicked a penalty but Lloyd Warner’s kick hit a post. So the opportunity to gain a lead and avoid having to chase another game against these opponents.

A poor pass was dropped to set the tone for Rugby’s play and from the scrum, Leicester swept up the pitch with sharp handling for Ben Walker’s converted try to open the scoring.

On 16 minutes, Leicester scored again from a penalty lineout, Andrew Dockray touching down and Jon Boden again converting.

Rugby looked disorganised without the injured Matt Goode and had no answer to the swift raids of Leicester even though two attempted scores were held up over the line by good Rugby defence.

But just into the second quarter, Leicester wrapped up the game with two further tries to secure the four-try bonus point and put the match out of Rugby’s reach.

Perhaps this took the edge off Leicester’s game with the full 5 points won but Rugby did prevent any further score before the interval.

But a scuffle left Warner concerned with his face, just as the first breakdown had left Tom Harris feeling the effects of a Leicester player’s off-ball contact following a tackle.

Phil Reed seemed to have scored a try from Jeff Gregson’s pass but the touch judge had seen Gregson’s foot on the touchline.

Whatever the Rugby coaches said at half time, the last thing they wanted was another Leicester score right on the restart.

But the hosts turned a Rugby scrum and scored following their own put in through prop Shaun Murray.

Now at last, and way too late, Rugby started to re-emerge as a scoring force.

Good work by the forwards in midfield led to Joss Andrews getting away down the right to score for 33-5 on 46 minutes.

But Rugby were still unable to cope with the Leicester backs – or Leicester were given too much room to fail to prosper after a similarly inconsistent season to Rugby’s so far.

Rugby lost possession at their own scrum and Jon Saxon scored Leicester’s sixth try with Boden adding a fifth conversion.

Rugby now had a better spell with the game very open. Reed sent out a looping miss pass for Harris to race home.

This converted try was followed 5 minutes later by Reed’s own try again converted by Warner for 40-19 with 13 minutes left to play.

Any thought of two tries gaining Lions a losing bonus point disappeared with Leicester’s seventh try as Rugby’s defence looked more porous than at any time this season.

Late on, Rugby found a way to take something positive from this game when replacement Ben Spokes scored after Warner’s long run to secure their own four-try bonus point.

Even later, Reed broke clear but although his dummy pass worked perfectly, he lost sight of how to complete the attack, passing to the marked Harris when he had manufactured for himself a clear path to the tryline.