Freddie Steward has given Steve Borthwick food for thought at full-back before the autumn internationals with an eye-catching start to the season that has turned up the temperature on George Furbank.

Leicester’s one-man air defence system gave another illustration of his evolving attacking game in an impactful performance capped off with one of the Tigers’ seven tries in the 42-10 win at Newcastle on Saturday evening.

While Steward started England’s last Test against New Zealand in Auckland in the summer – when Furbank pulled out with a back issue – he has slipped behind the Northampton captain in the pecking order.

But when Borthwick’s England squad assembles on Monday for a three-day training camp, the upgrade in Steward’s running game after a summer speed programme will be one of the main items of interest.

“I’m still a similar weight but I’ve hopefully lost a bit of fat. I’ve been working really hard. Physically, I want to build that side of my game. It is a massive focus for me at the minute,” said Steward.

“It’s been a joy working with the S and C [strength and conditioning] guys at Leicester like Matt Parr and Chris Kemp on that speed and acceleration.

“I want to add it to my game. I want to be explosive and powerful and I will keep working hard on that.

“I feel there has been a bit of transition on to the field. It’s early days – we’re only three games into the season – but physically I feel in great shape.

“I want to get my hands on the ball as often as I can and be hungry to attack.”

While Newcastle did not make for the most demanding opposition, Steward’s performance came on the back of another potent display, against Bath the previous weekend.

The 6ft 4in, 16st 12lb full-back beat five defenders against last season’s Premiership finalists and, when he hit traffic, topped the league’s numbers for most post-contact metres made across the round with 25 metres.

Statistics from Oval Insights – and Borthwick loves his data – show that so far this season Steward is averaging 5.5 metres per carry compared to 3.8 metres for Furbank.

The 23-year-old feels he is benefiting not just from his own change of emphasis but from Leicester’s, too. They have pledged to expand their horizons under Michael Cheika and attack coach Peter Hewat, who took charge of the Tigers in the suspended head coach’s absence at Kingston Park.

“We’re only scratching the surface,” said Steward. “We’ve had three games now where we have been putting into place things that we have worked on pre-season and I think there is so much more improvement in us.

“We’re working unbelievably hard, Hewy’s doing a fantastic job and, more importantly, everyone’s enjoying the desire to run with the ball and attack with the ball.”

After two wins from three, Leicester face Northampton – Steward versus Furbank – in the East Midlands derby next on Saturday.

“We have a massive game next weekend for the club and for the fans and all eyes are on that. We’re just excited to get our teeth into it,” said Steward.

Report: No Michael Cheika, no problem as Leicester Tigers consign Newcastle to 24th loss in a row

It was a case of no Michael Cheika, no problem for Leicester as they inflicted a 24th successive Premiership defeat on Newcastle at Kingston Park.

Seven tries provided a satisfactory return for a Tigers team who did not have to get out of second gear against a flimsy Falcons collective who look set for another season of struggle.

For the banned Leicester head coach, missing this game for disrespecting a match-day doctor at Exeter Chiefs, it made for a stress-free suspension. Opposite number Steve Diamond found it anything but.

“For a side that haven’t had their coach all week they were remarkable. It was us who looked like we haven’t had a coach for six weeks,” said the Newcastle director of rugby.

“I can’t say anyone stood out as being particularly bad, we all were. In all areas we were beaten comprehensively.

“It showed the gulf when we’re not at it mentally and we weren’t. We couldn’t do the basics: run, pass or tackle.

“Fair play to Leicester, they were very physical, we were in their shadow but I think the performance was unacceptable from me down to the kit man.”

The Falcons could not live with the power of the visitors who were led impressively by captain Ollie Chessum from the second row.

After an early exchange of penalties between Jamie Shillcock and Ethan Grayson, Ollie Hassell-Collins strolled in untouched for Leicester’s opening try in the 18th minute. The Tigers’ left-wing took Shillcock’s long pass and, in a marked improvement on last week’s embarrassing blunder against Bath, grounded the ball safely for the try.

Anthony Watson got in on the act six minutes later, handing off Newcastle full-back Elliott Obatoyinbo to touch down.

Grayson missed a penalty in front of the posts five minutes before the break and the Tigers punished Newcastle with a third try. Chessum made inroads down the left-hand touchline and back-row Emeka Ilione drove over to give Leicester a 20-3 interval lead. The 22-year-old Nottingham University medical student was starting only because No 8 Kyle Hatherell pulled out through illness ahead of kick-off.

Once the bonus point was secured three minutes into the second half by Freddie Steward, it was just a case of how many Leicester would score.

Newcastle captain Callum Chick pulled a try back while Leicester were down to 13 men, with Watson and Hanro Liebenberg in the sin-bin, but George Martin scored a fifth before the hour.

Will Wand added an interception score before the returning Liebenberg completed the rout.

Had Leicester not missed six shots at goal it would have been even worse for Newcastle.

The travelling Tigers fans, some of whom wore Cheika masks, lapped it up.

Match details

Scoring sequence: 0-3 Shillcock pen, 3-3 Grayson pen, 3-8 Hassell-Collins try, 3-10 Shillcock con, 3-15 Watson try, 3-20 Elione try, 3-25 Steward try, 8-25 Chick try, 10-25 Grayson con, 10-30 Martin try, 10-32 Shillcock con, 10-37 Wand try, 10-42 Liebenberg try.
Newcastle Falcons: E Obatoyinbo (L Brown 66); B Redshaw, C Doherty, S Arnold (O Spencer 64), B Stevenson; E Grayson, S Stuart (Davis 55); A Brocklebank (M McCallum 55), J Blamire (O Fletcher 66), R Palframan (L de Bruin 55), J Hawkins (P Rubiolo 49), K McDonald, P van der Walt (F Lockwood 58), T Gordon, C Chick (c).
Yellow cards: Blamire 56
Leicester Tigers: F Steward; A Watson, I Perese (W Wand 56), J Woodward, O Hassell-Collins; J Shillcock (B Volavola 71), J van Poortvliet (B Youngs 60); N Smith (J Cronin 60), C Clare (A Vanes 66), W Hurd (D Cole 50), G Martin (C Joussain 70), O Chessum (c), E Ilione (H Wells 62), T Reffell, H Liebenberg.
Yellow cards: Watson 48, Liebenberg 49
Referee: J Makepeace
Attendance: 6,161