Premiership: Gloucester 34-19 Northampton Saints - Cherry and Whites ease to bonus-point win

Santiago Carreras was both a try creator and scorer for Gloucester against Northampton

Gloucester ended a run of three league defeats with a 34-19 bonus-point win over Northampton at Kingsholm.

Jack Singleton and Chris Harris scored either side of a double from Saints' Tommy Freeman, before Santiago Carreras pushed Gloucester nine points clear.

Fraser Balmain then powered over and, although James Ramm scored late for Saints, Carreras added two penalties.

Gloucester move above Northampton to fourth in the Premiership table, with Saints dropping to sixth.

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Saints, who have now lost five Premiership matches away from home this season, have won just one of their past seven trips to Kingsholm.

The visitors enjoyed all the pressure during the opening 10 minutes but were repeatedly let down when they pushed into the Gloucester 22, first mis-throwing a line-out, then getting turned over as they built through the phases and finally losing the ball to an interception five metres out.

By contrast, Gloucester scored at the first time of asking through Singleton, after Louis Rees-Zammit's run made the initial line break.

Freeman edged Saints in front with two tries in five minutes, as they twice took advantage of gaps in the Gloucester defence on the wing.

Yet the match continued to see-saw when Harris retaliated, after Argentina international Carreras found space in behind to off-load to the Scot.

The Gloucester fly-half was then rewarded with his own try before the break, using his speed to cruise over between two Saints players, with the only downside for the hosts being the loss of of Singleton, who was stretchered off after a lengthy pause half an hour into the first half.

Northampton continued to waste chances to score after the break. Gloucester number eight Ben Morgan produced a try-saving tackle a few metres from his own line and Freeman was unable to collect a kick-through that would have seen him over.

When Saints captain Lewis Ludlum was sent to the sin-bin for an infringement at the breakdown, Gloucester capitalised instantly, scoring through Balmain from the ensuing line-out and driving maul.

Carreras added three points as the penalty count racked up against Saints, and while Ramm ran through for a try on his first Premiership start while Gloucester's Ruan Ackermann was in the bin for a deliberate knock-on, it was too little, too late.

Carreras took his tally for the evening to 19 points with his second penalty to cap a night when Gloucester bounced back.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"The boys were outstanding. Our last Premiership game here against Newcastle we were obviously very disappointed with what we put out on the field. That's probably the first time we've done that in a couple of years.

"The boys wanted to make a point and give something back to the supporters, make that right, really.

"They're an outstanding attacking team, they're the best in the league so we knew they'd play wide to wide and early on they caught us a couple of times. We were a little disjointed but we corrected that at half-time.

"Santi Carreras was great at 10. We were brave in the way we wanted to play and, after a disappointing autumn international period for us in the Premiership we needed that."

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton:

"I'm sick of saying that we're getting into the opposition 22 and then we cough up so much ball, whether it's an interception, a turnover or a kick-through that doesn't go to hand.

"We're profligate with those opportunities and we're not converting enough of them. That's not a new thing, and I appreciate that's frustrating for the fans, but that's something we're working very hard on.

"Our defence was very poor, particularly in the first half in terms of missing tackles and doing some strange things in defensive alignment. And in the second half our discipline. We gave away a lot more penalties and we again gave a yellow card away.

"It's similar issues that we're aware of that we're trying to work on which are not quick fixes. The opportunities they had, they took them and we didn't. It's incredibly frustrating."

Gloucester: Evans; Rees-Zammit, Harris, Atkinson, May; Carreras, Varney; Rapava-Ruskin, Singleton, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow (c), Morgan.

Replacements: Socino, Elrington, Knight, Jordan, Polledri, Chapman, Twelvetrees, Hearle.

Sin-bin: Ackermann (71)

Northampton Saints: Furbank; Ramm, Dingwall, Hutchinson, Freeman; Smith, Mitchell; Waller, Matavesi, Hill, Salakaia-Loto, Moon, Coles, Ludlam (c), Augustus

Replacements: Smith, Iyogun, Petch, Ribbans, Scott-Young, James, Collins, Proctor.

Sin-bin: Ludlum (59)

Referee: Ian Tempest.