Premiership: Northampton Saints 41-34 Gloucester: Saints beat top-four rivals in 12-try thriller

Saints winger James Ramm helped set up a number of tries for his side against Gloucester

Northampton moved four points clear of top-four rivals Gloucester with a 41-34 bonus-point win at Franklin Gardens.

Seb Blake scored twice for Gloucester while a James Grayson penalty and Alex Waller's try levelled it at the break.

Callum Braley and Ollie Thorley traded tries, but Alex Moon, Sam Graham, Tommy Freeman and Fraser Dingwell all scored as Saints raced clear.

Yet a late flurry from Jamal Ford-Robinson and Matias Alemanno saw the visitors leave with two losing points.

While Saracens and Sale might be racing ahead in the top two positions in the Premiership, the battle for the rest of the top four is fiercely tight with Saints now edging four points clear in third of the Cherry and Whites, who started the day a place below them.

Grayson kicked the opening points in a fluctuating first half, as Gloucester got the first try through hooker Blake - scoring from a driving maul five metres out - before Waller edged Northampton back in front, crossing from close range.

Both sides saw points go begging, as Santiago Carreras missed a conversion and Grayson was wayward with a penalty as the wind started to swirl in a closely fought first half.

Alex Coles agonisingly scuppered a chance to stretch Saints' lead while Gloucester similarly struggled to turn time in the Saints 22 into points.

Alemanno was held up on the line and Albert Tuisue dropped the ball as he went to touch it down before Blake eventually went over for his second from a maul right before the break.

Two minutes into the second half, James Ramm set up a Northampton charge to the line from which scrum-half Braley eventually went over and again Gloucester instantly hit back as Carreras and Chris Harris created space downfield and Thorley scored on the outside.

Yet eight minutes of dominance from Northampton saw Gloucester carved open as Moon started to turn the tide, overpowering Lloyd Evans in the corner for his first Premiership try.

A perfect 50:22 kick from Ram helped Graham quickly follow under the posts for the bonus point and Freeman pounced on a miss-pass to race over from his own half for their fifth try.

Dingwall stretched the lead to 41-15 with Northampton's sixth - and the try of the game - created by stylish, slick passing as Saints ran circles around the Gloucester defence and had the match all-but wrapped up.

The win may have drifted away from the visitors but George Skivington's men ended the game on the front foot, Ford-Robinson crashed over either side of a try from Alemanno in the final six minutes to keep them in the hunt for the top four.

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton:

"The table is so compressed to the team just behind you, to give away two bonus points in the last 10 minutes is really disappointing.

"We did loads of stuff in the first half that was very good. Good sides like Gloucester aren't going to go away before half-time, they are going to be close to you, they are going to be tight.

"But the groundwork we put in in the first half came to the fore in the second and for large periods of that time we looked really good."

Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"I thought our bench was outstanding when they came on, I think they really injected something into the game and that's why we came away with a couple of points at the end because they brought some real good energy and accuracy.

"I think for the rest of the game we didn't really have that to be honest. We made some breaks and bits and pieces but we weren't accurate enough.

"I thought Saints had a real bite about them. I thought they came out of the blocks really hard. We knew there would be real momentum shifts and at one stage they scored a couple of wonder tries and suddenly you're lagging by 15 points.

"Disappointing for us today, I don't think we were good enough."

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Northampton Saints: Ramm, Freeman, Dingwall (c), Hutchinson, Collins, Grayson, Braley; A. Waller, Smith, Painter, Ribbans, Moon, Coles, Scott-Young, Graham.

Replacements: Cruse, E. Waller, Petch, Salakaia-Loto, Hinkley, Garside, Smith, Skosan.

Gloucester: Evans, May, Harris, Atkinson, Thorley, Carreras, Meehan; Rapava-Ruskin, Blake, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow (c), Tuisue.

Replacements: Walker, Elrington, Ford-Robinson, Jordan, Clement, Chapman, Twelvetrees, Seabrook.

Referee: Adam Leal