Gloucester beat Saints but fall short of top four

Jack Cotgreave scored a hat-trick for Gloucester

Gallagher Premiership, Kingsholm

Gloucester (22) 41

Tries: Cotgreave 3, Wade 2, Williams, Atkinson Cons: Carreras 3

Northampton (14) 26

Tries: Pearson, Litchfield, Lumley, Mapu Cons: Hutchinson 3

Jack Cotgreave scored a hat-trick to help Gloucester to a bonus-point victory over Northampton but it was not enough to force their way into the Premiership top four.

The Cherry and Whites did all they could, running in six tries to see off a much-changed but very spirited Saints.

There was no help from elsewhere though as Leicester, Sale and Bristol all won to limit Gloucester to a fifth-placed finish.

Teenage winger Cotgreave's two first-half tries plus scores from Christian Wade and Tomos Williams helped the home side into a 22-14 half-time lead.

Cotgreave's third score, Seb Atkinson's try and a second from the departing Wade completed the job after the break.

Gloucester began as huge favourites for victory as Northampton made 14 changes from the side that lost the Champions Cup final to Bordeaux last weekend and 19-year-old Cotgreave scored the first try after just five minutes.

Saints quickly replied through a try from short range by flanker Tom Pearson before centre Tom Litchfield powered over to put the visitors in front.

Two tries out of nothing had Gloucester back in front before half-time as Wade picked off Henry Lumley's pass and sprinted to the line from 60 metres out before Saints failed to secure a box-kick and the loose ball was scooped up by Freddie Clarke and his offload sent Williams into the left corner.

Saints laid siege to the Gloucester line just before half-time and prop Afo Fasogbon was yellow carded for making a tackle on his knees but the hosts survived to take an eight-point lead to the break.

Shortly after the interval, Saints got back to within a point as Lumley atoned for his earlier interception as he dummied to go through half a gap and reach for the line.

But Gloucester quickly scored a fifth try as they swung play left to exploit space and Cotgreave stepped inside to score his third try before Wade made a break up the right wing and offloaded inside for Atkinson to push the hosts further clear.

Saints refused to buckle and rolled Mapu over the line from a short-range line-out to close to within 10 points. They dominated the final 15 minutes but Gloucester held firm.

The hosts had the final say with the last play of the game as Wade raced up the right wing in front of The Shed to score his 93rd, and final, Premiership try before his cross-code move to Wigan Warriors, leaving him six short of Chris Ashton's league record.

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"This was always the most likely outcome so it's mixed emotions.

"I'm proud of the way the boys have committed to something and stuck with it all season, even with a few games that hurt us.

"They've gone fully behind shifting the envelop a little bit and they've done what they could do."

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson Skivington told BBC Radio Northampton:

"It's clearly not ideal, we wanted to shock them and win the game, we didn't get to that level but we certainly got in amongst it.

"People said beforehand we had nothing to play for but we had loads to play for - players, coaches leaving, players making their first start, loads of emotion around it.

"We competed so hard, I'm incredibly proud and we've got a lot to work with."

Gloucester: Carreras, Wade, Harris, Atkinson, Cotgreave, Anscombe, Williams; Knight, Singleton, Fasogbon, Clarke, Clark, Clement, Ludlow (c), Ackermann

Replacements: Blake, Ford-Robinson, Gotovtsev, Jordan, Thomas, Englefield, Butler, Barton

Sin-bin: Fasogbon

Northampton: Garside, Cousins, Lumley, Litchfield, Sleightholme, Hutchinson, Weimann; Haffar, Walker, Green, Prowse (c), Munga, Benson, Pearson, Brown

Replacements: Langdon, Iyogun, Millar Mills, Hunter-Hill, Lockett, Mapu, Pater, Baker

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe