Flood warning as England fly-half closes in on Tigers contract

The 25-year-old, who kicked six penalties and a drop goal in a flawless display with the boot as the Tigers beat Bath 21-15 at Welford Road on Saturday, was recently reported to have already agreed an extension to his stay with the East Midlands club, whom he joined from Newcastle in 2008.

But he said: "We are in negotiations. We are there or thereabouts but there are a couple of things to tie down."

He then joked: "Although I have been talking to Wayne Rooney so you never know I might start to question the club's ambition.

"But to be serious it's 99 per cent there and I feel comfortable here in terms of how we want to proceed and how we want to play."

Leicester expect to find out within the next 72 hours whether Flood will be released from England's pre-autumn internationals training camp, for which Martin Johnson's squad convened yesterday, to feature in their Premiership clash at Gloucester next weekend.

Director of rugby Richard Cockerill is hopeful Flood will be available given he has only started two games since suffering a knee injury on the first day of the season.

All of Bath's points came courtesy of five penalties from centre Olly Barkley

Gloucester boss Bryan Redpath admitted his team suffered "a few flutters" before denying a Nick Evans-inspired Harlequins victory at Kingsholm.

Fly-half Evans scored 21 points as Quins hauled themselves level from 26-13 adrift before Gloucester number eight Brett Deacon claimed a 77th-minute touchdown.

The 33-26 verdict meant Gloucester could celebrate a third successive Aviva Premiership victory, while Quins are still without an away league win this year.

Gloucester played half the second period with 14 men after props Paul Doran-Jones and Nick Wood were sin-binned, and their transgressions gave Quins a lifeline before Deacon finished them off.

"I felt we were pretty comfortable before the two yellow cards," said Redpath.

"Suddenly it was 26-26, then we dug in well during the closing minutes. I will take that, although the second-half wasn't good enough collectively. There were a few flutters.

"I am disappointed with the two yellow cards, both were dull penalties."

Evans and England scrum-half Danny Care touched down for Quins, while Evans's opposite number Nicky Robinson amassed 18 points, including conversions of tries from Dave Lewis, Charlie Sharples and Deacon, for Gloucester.

London Irish consolidated top spot on Saturday evening after posting a fortunate win over battling Exeter at Sandy Park.

The leaders were indebted to Ryan Lamb for his two penalty goals in the final 10 minutes, as Exeter were more than a match for their lofty opponents for much of the contest.

Gareth Steenson, the former Rotherham fly-half, hobbled off for Exeter after kicking their first six points before a Ryan Davis drop goal completed their scoring in a 12-9 Irish win.

Irish director of rugby Toby Booth said: "It was a game of two halves – they won the first and we won the second.

"I was really impressed with Exeter, they were well organised, well coached and very committed."

Booth continued: "Our lineout grew much stronger as the game wore on. We used our Premiership experience of previous pressure cookers to get us home."