Saracens beat Gloucester to charge towards top four

The Prem

Saracens (18) 30

Tries: Segun 2, Earl, Dan Cons: Burke, Farrell Pens: Burke 2

Gloucester (0) 7

Tries: Joseph 2 Cons: C. Atkinson 2

Saracens continued their surge towards the play-offs with a 30-14 victory over Gloucester to move three points off fourth in the Prem table.

The victory was the London club's fourth in a row in the league and means they leapfrog Bristol into fifth and close in on Exeter above, following their defeat by Harlequins earlier in the day, a result which also drops Gloucester to ninth and out of the Champions Cup places for next season as things stand.

Rotimi Segun scored two first-half tries with Fergus Burke kicking eight points to open an 18-0 lead.

Ben Earl stretched over early in the second half as Theo Dan secured the crucial bonus point try for the hosts, before Will Joseph pulled back two late tries to ensure the scoreboard was more respectable for Gloucester.

It is a remarkable turnaround in form for Mark McCall's side, who looked all but out of contention for the semi-finals after back-to-back defeats by Bath and Northampton in March left them 12 points adrift of the top four.

But they bounced back to beat Sale, Leicester, Bristol and now the Cherry and Whites in their past four games and with the Bears and Exeter above both dropping points, they are right in the mix with two rounds to go and also head to Sandy Park to play the Chiefs in the final round.

Gloucester have had a season to forget but seemed to have turned a corner in recent weeks following back-to-back wins.

Yet against Saracens they were largely off the pace, as they failed to score any points until the 70th minute.

Both teams had their share of possession and opportunities but where Gloucester were out of sync, Saracens were far more clinical.

They turned Gloucester over from their own attacking line-out and pounced on the counter to open the scoring, as Burke broke through the line and linked up with Max Malins, who passed to Segun to go over.

A Burke penalty made it 8-0 before Segun doubled his tally, pouncing onto a quick pass around the back of a line-out and then weaved with ease past Gloucester defenders.

There was a brief pause while referee Adam Leal went off with an Achilles injury and was replaced by George Selwood, before another three points from Burke nudged the score out further and momentum continued Saracens' way after the break.

Earl stretched over under a tackle to make it 23-0 and Dan secured the crucial bonus point score on 52 minutes, charging over from a line-out and driving maul.

Gloucester's defence stood up firmly however to deny Saracens adding any more points in the final quarter and Joseph finally gave their fans something to cheer in the final 10 minutes.

He ran into the corner and then with Saracens down to 14 and Dan in the sin bin, he collected a neat pass from Freddie Thomas and cut back inside for his second.

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said:

"Six weeks ago we started talking about it [the play-offs], what was left and we knew it wasn't in our hands at all, to be honest, but we could do what we could do.

"The three games before this we played better than we did today, although some aspects of our game today I'm pleased with and were strong.

"But six weeks on from going up to Sale it's in our hands now and we welcome Quins here [next], and obviously they had a great result today against Exeter, which helps us but underlines how important it is you respect every opponent that comes."

Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"It was tough, they were relentless, made us live in our own 22 for at least 50 minutes of that game. Their big players really stood up and kept pushing us back.

"We had opportunities in the first half that just didn't stick.

"We probably took the wrong options a couple of times and didn't get any points on the board which gave them a real momentum going in at half-time.

"However, there were some unbelievable defensive blocks from the lads, their ability to stay in the game and keep fighting and fighting was impressive."

Saracens: Malins; Caluori, Tompkins, Hartley, Segun; Burke, Bracken; Carre, George, Street; Itoje (c), Isiekwe, McFarland, Earl, Willis.

Replacements: Dan, Mawi, Clarey, Tizard, Michelow, Van Zyl, Farrell, Elliott.

Sin bin: Dan (72 mins)

Gloucester: Barton; Joseph, Llewellyn, S. Atkinson (c), Loader; C. Atkinson, Englefield; Rapava Ruskin, Blake, Fasogbon; Clark, Alemanno, Thomas, Venter, Trenholm.

Replacements: Innard, Bleuler, Knight, Eite, Gwynne, Clement, Austin, Edwards-Giraud.

Referee: Adam Leal and George Selwood