Premiership: Gloucester 8-6 London Irish - Last-minute Carreras penalty gives hosts dramatic win

Santi Carreras' late penalty for Gloucester means they end 2022 in fourth place in the Premiership table

Santi Carreras kicked a last-minute penalty to give Gloucester a dramatic late Premiership win over London Irish.

In a tight first half, Gloucester led courtesy of Mati Alemanno's try, with Paddy Jackson's penalty cutting the deficit for the visitors.

The hosts were reduced to 14 men as Albert Tuisue saw yellow for a high shot on Benhard Janse van Rensburg.

Jackson kicked the resulting penalty to give Irish a narrow one-point lead but Carreras then kicked for the win.

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After Alemanno had powered over to give Gloucester the lead, Santiago Socino was stretchered off with a serious looking leg injury. George McGuigan came on to replace him and make his home debut.

There was more injury woe for Gloucester just moments later as Alex Craig was forced off, before Jackson's penalty closed out an edgy first 40 minutes.

Gloucester had a try ruled out by the TMO after the break as Ben Meehan's grubber kick was fumbled away but the score was disallowed for a knock-on in the build-up.

In the final stages, Jackson thought he had given the visitors a late win with another penalty but there was more drama to come.

The Cherry and Whites forced a scrum on halfway in the closing stages and then won a resulting penalty, which Carreras dispatched from long range to give the hosts a remarkable win.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington:

"We had to make a lot of changes through injuries and illness so I'm really pleased that we stuck to our simple game plan as last week at Leicester we became very loose by changing what we set out to do.

"Our maul didn't function at times as we would have expected to get a couple of them over the line.

"Santi [Carreras] is a world-class player and he delivered under pressure. He made a hash of the conversion attempt but by then kicking the match-winner he went from zero to hero."

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"We will have to look at the first 20 minutes as we were lucky to be only 5-0 down as we were trying to play Gloucester's way and not our own.

"It was a massive defensive effort from us so it's very emotional to lose in the last play.

"We know we are on an upward trajectory so it's frustrating that we came so close as we worked incredibly hard."

Gloucester: Evans; May, Harris, Atkinson, Thorley; Carreras, Meehan; Elrington, Socino, Gotovtsev, Craig, Alemanno, Taylor, Ludlow, Ackermann.

Replacements: McGuigan, Saville, Knight, Jordan, Tuisue, Varney, Twelvetrees, Seabrook.

London Irish: Loader; Luna, Janse van Rensburg, Jennings, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, White; Goodrick-Clarke, Willemse, Hoskins, Ratuniyarawa, Munga, Gonzalez, Pearson, Rogerson.

Replacements: Ruiz, Fischetti, Chawatama, Caulfield, Basham, Cunningham-South, Powell, Morisi.

Referee: Adam Leal.