Gloucester comfortably beat lacklustre Harlequins

Gloucester moved level on points with fourth-placed Saracens in the Premiership table

Gallagher Premiership

Gloucester (14) 14

Tries: Hathaway, Clement Cons: Carreras 2

Harlequins (0) 0

Two first-half tries were enough to secure a comfortable Premiership victory for Gloucester against under-par Harlequins at Kingsholm.

Converted scores from Josh Hathaway and Jack Clement gave Gloucester a 14-0 lead at the break.

The hosts dominated at the breakdown and scrum for most of the game but missed chances to close the match out, while Harlequins made a series of errors as both sides failed to score in the second half.

It is the first time in more than 10 years that Harlequins failed to score a point in a Premiership game.

The result leaves the Cherry and Whites fifth in the table and level on points with fourth-placed Saracens, while Harlequins stay seventh with 19 points from seven games.

Harlequins failed to score a point in a Premiership game for the first time since September 2014

Both sides paid tribute to former Gloucester player Tom Voyce, who tragically died during the floods of Storm Darragh earlier this month.

The visitors had won nine of their past 11 matches against Gloucester but, despite dominating the early possession and territory, rarely looked a threat going forward.

Hathaway gave the home side the lead as he ran in at the corner after he was found in acres of space on the left touchline by a looping pass from Gareth Anscombe.

Gloucester are the league's top scorers in the first half of matches and Harlequins could not deal with their hosts at the breakdown and the scrum, conceding three penalties at set plays.

The second try came from the line-out, with flanker Clement powering over the line for his third try of the season.

Prop Afolabi Fasogbon almost got on the scoresheet but was adjudged to have fallen just short and rolled the ball on to the line. He went off in the first half after he suffered a knee injury.

Harlequins managed to hold Clement up to deny the 23-year-old his second try of the match and keep themselves in the game with the final play of the first half.

But the mistakes continued for the away side after the break, with scrum-half Will Porter passing well forward and then Lennox Anyanwu dropping the ball in good positions.

Christian Wade was held up between the posts for the hosts before Santi Carreras hit the upright with a penalty soon after from distance as the Cherry and Whites saw out the clock for the win.

Harlequins finished with zero points in a league game for the first time since losing 39-0 against London rivals Saracens in September 2014.

'The boys were brutally physical' - Skivington

George Skivington's Gloucester side have won four of their opening eight Premiership games this season

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"I thought our defence was outstanding, to nil any Premiership team is massive. To nil Harlequins with Marcus Smith and players like that on the pitch is huge.

"I think the first defensive set of the game set the tone for the game. I thought the boys were brutally physical and smashed in and managed to hold out some players like [Alex] Dombrandt and [Chandler] Cunningham-South and really set what the game was going to be about.

"And the first 10 minutes of the second half was a very similar story. I think those are the moments you find out what you're about as a team.

"Scoring nice tries is important and the boys are doing that in abundance, and probably left four or five out there today, but those are the moments you find out about each other."

Quins 'not at the races' - Wilson

Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson:

"We were riddled with errors and physically we weren't at the races, especially in the first half as Gloucester clearly had the competitive edge at that stage.

"The second half was an improvement but overall we gave away 23 turnovers and made 15 handling errors – but despite that we still had many opportunities to score, which we blew.

"I have not seen us make that many individual errors for some time so we need to address the problem ahead of next week's important game with Leicester at Twickenham."

Gloucester: Carreras; Wade, Llewellyn, Atkinson, Hathaway; Anscombe, Williams; Rapava-Ruskin, Blake, Fasogbon; Thomas, Alemanno, Clement, Ludlow, Ackermann

Replacements: Singleton, Knight, Gotovtsev, Jordan, Tuisue, Englefield, Harris, Barton

Harlequins: Green; Isgro, Beard, Anyanwu, Murley; Smith, Porter; Baxter, Walker, Kerrod; Lamb, Hammond; Cunningham-South, W Evans, Dombrandt

Replacements: Riley, Jones, Lewis, Herbst, Chisholm, Care, J Evans, David

Referee: Christophe Ridley