London (AFP) - Richard Wigglesworth's first game in charge of Leicester saw the reigning champions enjoy a convincing 28-13 victory over Gloucester in the English Premiership on Saturday as they became the inaugural winners of the Slater Cup.
The match was named in honour of Ed Slater, who played for both clubs but was forced to retire in pre-season after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Former lock Slater, 34, was present at Welford Road to present the trophy.
Wigglesworth ended his playing career aged 39 following last week's Champions Cup win over Clermont after being thrust into the role of interim head coach when Steve Borthwick, together with assistant Kevin Sinfield, left Leicester to take charge of England.
England's Anthony Watson scored two tries for Leicester, with Guy Porter also crossing, as Freddie Burns kicked three penalties and two conversions.
Albert Tuisue and England flyer Jonny May scored tries for Gloucester, with Scotland international Adam Hastings adding a penalty in a match that sparked into life after a drab first half ended with Gloucester 8-6 ahead.
"I am learning as I go along and I intend to put everything into it," said Wigglesworth, a former England scrum-half.
"We made some errors today and were scratchy at times but hopefully we will show more cohesion in the weeks ahead as it's been a delayed start to our team-building this season with the England boys away."
Defeat for the visitors was made worse by the sight of Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit going off early on with a leg injury -- a worry for Warren Gatland ahead of the New Zealander's second stint as Wales boss, which begins with a Six Nations clash at home to Ireland on February 4.
The Cherry and Whites' plans were disrupted further by an injury to Argentina star Santiago Carreras.
"We had a game plan but losing two of our strike runners didn't help and possibly, I should have addressed it more at half-time as we got sucked into still playing our game with a reserve nine (scrum-half) on the wing," said Gloucester boss George Skivington.
Leicester's win saw them leapfrog Gloucester into fourth place in the table.
In Saturday's other English top-flight encounter, Exeter withstood a Bath fightback to win 20-15 at Sandy Park.
Exeter's Dave Ewers and Henry Slade both scored tries as the hosts surged into a 20-10 half-time lead.
Bath, however, dominated the second half but only had replacement hooker Niall Annett's 62nd-minute try to show for their efforts.
