The home side dominated territory in the opening exchanges thanks to some raking kicks from the impressive Luke Boucher and were rewarded on 5 minutes when James Stubbs profited from an inside pass from Joe Brock who had made a line break out wide.

The Lions were moving the ball wide and finding space on the edges, and they doubled their lead on 13 minutes when Joey Patrick found himself on the end of another flowing move.

The first half rout was completed on 31 minutes when a clever chip from Dan Lewis was collected by Jamel Hamilton to score under the posts. Lewis converted all three scores to give the Lions a commanding 21-0 lead at the break.

The only blight on an otherwise excellent first half for the Lions was a late yellow card for back row Simon Johnson, who was sent to the bin for a high tackle following a team warning for the same offence.

Taunton came out for the second half on the front foot and scored almost immediately when a kick through took a nasty bounce and was retrieved by scrum half Connor Banks who ran in under the sticks.

The Lions quickly regained control of the contest though and a Lewis penalty extended their lead before securing the bonus point try when number 8 Nick Cairns picked from the base of a scrum and crashed over in the corner.

Credit has to be given to the visitors though who, at 29-7 down going in to the last quarter, rallied and put the home side under real pressure. Firstly Charlie Wright scored from close range with 10 minutes remaining and then with time up fly half Frankie Dart finished off a line break from Deago Bailey to score a deserved consolation score.

Leicester Lions head coach commented after the game: ‘‘Obviously it was a huge game for both sides so we are delighted with the win. Off the back of a disappointing display at Rosslyn Park last week it was also a performance we can build on. We showed real maturity for most of the game and we will certainly take the positives in to another massive game at Stortford next week.’’