Gloucester's play-off hopes hit by Quins thrashing

Harlequins ended a run of four straight losses in all competitions

Gallagher Premiership

Harlequins (28) 38

Tries: Murley 3, Evans, Isgro 2 Cons: M Smith 4

Gloucester (7) 19

Tries: Wade, Carreras, Cotgreave Cons: Carreras 2

Gloucester's hopes of reaching the Premiership's play-offs suffered a major blow as they were thrashed by Harlequins.

Victory would have seen them leapfrog Sale Sharks and Saracens into fourth spot, but they were second best from the off as Quins turned on the style at Allianz Stadium.

Cadan Murley grabbed two tries and Will Evans and Rodrigo Isgro one each as the hosts had a bonus point by half-time.

Murley completed his hat-trick and Isgro added another in the second period as Quins moved up to seventh with this win.

Christian Wade, Santi Carreras and Jack Cotgreave scored Gloucester's tries but they stay in sixth, three points behind fourth.

Fun in the sun for Quins

Harlequins' own top-four hopes had effectively been ended by three straight defeats, but they were determined to put on a show across the road from The Stoop as part of their fourth annual Big Summer Kick-Off.

Two days after being announced in the Lions' squad, Marcus Smith was again a focus of attention.

Whether he's a full-back or a number 10, Smith showed why he is on the plane to Australia, with a cute pass to Alex Dombrandt that led to Murley scoring the first try to get the scoreboard ticking, although there was a hint of the pass being forward.

There should have been a second try quickly after but full-back Tyrone Green dropped the ball as he was about to touch it down, and seven points went begging.

Another try was disallowed, but there was nothing wrong when Evans finished off a catch-and-drive from a five-metre lineout.

And Quins underlined their early dominance when Green's lovely back-of-the-hand pass allowed Isgro to score.

Christian Wade now has 91 Premiership tries, behind only Tom Varndell (92) and Chris Ashton (101)

Gloucester's hopes fading

In their previous game, the Cherry and Whites had run in 13 tries in a club-record-breaking win over Exeter Chiefs.

That level was nowhere to be seen in the opening 30 minutes as they chase a top-four spot for the first time since 2019.

When they produced a moment of quality, Wade showed what rugby league's champion side Wigan Warriors will be getting when he heads north at the end of the season, with his 91st Premiership try, moving into solo third on that list.

But they soon slipped back into bad habits as Murley sauntered through big gaps in the Gloucester defence to collect the bonus point by the break.

And he ran in his hat-trick score early in the second half as Quins exploited more holes, before Argentina winger Isgro almost walked over for his second.

The game was now over but Carreras and Cotgreave went over as they chased a bonus-point, but they came up short.

They face Newcastle Falcons and Northampton Saints in their final two games and must win those and hope for favours elsewhere to make the play-offs.

Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson:

"Marcus is over the moon about being selected for the Lions. What I'm really pleased about is that two days after he gets the news, he puts in a performance like that.

"He wants to get to the next level. He wants to prove he should be starting, should be a Test-match Lion. I have all the faith in the world he'll get there.

"He was outstanding against Gloucester in terms of managing the game, picking when to kick and when to run. He gave us a weapon that caused Gloucester major problems.

"His work ethic is phenomenal - he has talent, but also a work ethic that makes that talent what it is. Against Leicester he was excellent, managed the game really well for us and showed he is a Test match 10 and he did it again against Gloucester."

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"We fell massively short today. I'm not sure why. I don't think we came out of the blocks.

"Quins flew out of the blocks, disrupted our breakdown and played a smart kicking game early on and put the ball behind us. We got turned over and couldn't get into our game.

"We fell off tackles, we dropped too many balls, we looked disjoined and a few lads out of position got exposed.

"It's really disappointing. I think there are too many areas to cover."

Harlequins: Green; Murley, Isgro, Beard, Waghorn; M Smith, Porter; Baxter, Walker, Lamositele, Herbst, Hammond, Kenningham, Evans, Dombrandt.

Replacements: Jibulu, Els, Streeter, Launchbury, Lawday, Murray, Benson, Northmore.

Sin-bin: Dombrandt (52), Murley (68)

Gloucester: Carreras; Wade, Harris, S Atkinson, Morris; Anscombe, T Williams; Rapava-Ruskin, Blake, Clark, Fasagbon, F Thomas, Clement, Ludlow, Ackermann.

Replacements: Singleton, Knight, Gotovtsev, Jordan, Clarke, Engelfield, C Atkinson, Cotgreave.

Sin-bin: Ackermann (56)

Referee: Adam Leal