Gloucester Rugby 54-7 Saracens, Kingsholm
Gloucester's 54-7 win over second string Saracens side was not enough as they narrowly missed out on the play-off spot in the ongoing Gallagher Premiership at Kingsholm.
The result meant Gloucester finished fifth at 73 points with Northampton moving to the next stage following their win over Newcastle Falcons.
Gloucester dominated the opening quarter as Jack Singleton went over the line in the 8th minute following a maul and 10 minutes later Jordy Reid touched down after collecting a clever pass from Ben Meehan. Adam Hastings kicked both the conversions as Gloucester raced to a 14-0 lead.
The Cherry and Whites extended their lead further with this time Santiago Carreras sped past the try line for his side's third try and with Hastings once again kicking the conversion right they went on to score 21 unanswered points in the opening half.
Saracens' problems compounded as Tim Swinson was sin-binned early in the second half for a high tackle on Ollie Thorley and Gloucester made full use of the numerical advantage with Singleton and Thorley scoring further tries to make it 33-0.
As Santiago Socino also forced his way over in the 58th minute, Gloucester had a 40-0 lead before Max Malins scored an intercept try with Manu Vunipola slotting the extras which remained the only points for Saracens in the game.
Adam Hastings and Jordy Reid combined to send Louis Rees-Zammit over in the 68th minute and Jack Clement also went over in the 72nd minute as Gloucester signed off their campaign with a dominant victory.
Team line up:
Gloucester: Carreras; Rees-Zammit, Harris, Kveseladze, Thorley; Hastings, Meehan; Rapava-Ruskin, Singleton, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Alemanno, Reid, Ludlow (capt), Ackermann.
Reserves: Socino, Elrington, Balmain, Davidson, Clement, Chapman, Twelvetrees, May.
Saracens: Obatoyinbo; Malins, Lozowski, Taylor, Harris; Manu Vunipola, Van Zyl; Mawi, Pifeleti, Clarey, Hunter-Hill, Swinson, Wray (capt), Knight, Venter.
Reserves: Dan, Adams-Hale, Wainwright, Boon, Reffell, De Haas, Morris, Hallett.
Widely regarded as the most competitive rugby union league in the world...it can only be the Gallagher Premiership.
The division is becoming more and more exciting as each year passes by so who will be lifting silverware at Twickenham in May?
At Talking Rugby Union, we aim to provide match reports and news together with our specially commissioned features and interviews.