Gloucester winger Lesley Vainikolo thanked the 'man up above' and his team-mates after scoring five tries on his rugby union debut.
Tongan winger marks union debut with five tries
Gloucester winger Lesley Vainikolo thanked the 'man up above' and his team-mates after scoring five tries on his rugby union debut.
Vainikolo joined the the Cherry and Whites after a hugely successful career in rugby league with the Bradford Bulls during which he scored 149 tries in 152 games.
The Tongan began his career in the 15-man code in style as Gloucester demolished Leeds Carnegie 49-24 in their Guinness Premiership opener.
"Only the man above can predict these kind of things and thanks to him, I had the power and the strength to go through and score," said Vainikolo.
"Credit to my team as well - the forwards did the hard yards and the backs finished.
"I didn't think I was going to get that many tries. I was just going out there and concentrating on the way I want to play.
"I always love playing here - in both codes. They tried to kick behind me early on but I got used to it and had no problems coping. I really enjoyed it out there."
Creating space
Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan added: "I know (Vainikolo) will dominate the headlines but quite a few of those tries could have been scored by any winger, although one or two were quite special for Lesley.
"The space that Lesley can create is the unhidden factor that we're keen to exploit.
"What we see with him scoring is fantastic; what we're seeing in terms of him creating space for others is something we're coming to terms with as a team and other players will benefit from it.
"I think we knew straight away that he has things that other players don't have."
World class
Leeds Carnegie, making their return to the top-flight, also played some entertaining rugby but their cause was not helped by injuries to Alberto Di Bernardo (hand) and Hendre Fourie (bicep).
Coach Stuart Lancaster preferred to pay tribute to Vainikolo and Gloucester's performance rather than dwell on his own side's mistakes.
He said: "I've seen Lesley Vainikolo do that to world class defences and he did to us again today.
"To make an impact like this in his first game of rugby union is very, very impressive.
"All credit to him and Gloucester for creating and taking those opportunities.
"They played well but we competed well across the park and have got lessons to learn and lots of positives to take as well."
