England star bags brace in Saracens victory over Gloucester

England hooker Theo Dan scored two tries as a dominant second-half display from Saracens saw them beat Gloucester 36-14 and move up to fourth in the Gallagher Premiership.

Sarries had to come back from a 14-12 half-time deficit at the StoneX Stadium and barely gave their fellow play-off chasers a sniff after the break as they leapfrogged them in the table.

The six-time champions are now three points clear of the Cherry and Whites, although Leicester have a chance to move into the top four themselves should they defeat Bristol on Sunday.

Gloucester broke through after seven minutes when Jake Morris’s grubber kick infield evaded Saracens’ number eight Tom Willis, allowing Chris Harris to gather and score, with Santi Carreras converting the try.

It took Saracens just three minutes to hit back, though, as Rotimi Segun picked up a loose ball and broke down the left, stepping past Carreras to go clear, although Fergus Burke’s missed conversion meant the visitors remained 7-5 ahead.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Saracens

36 - 14

Full-time

Gloucester

All Stats and Data

Defences then tightened up after this quick exchange of scores, with one big hit from Nick Tompkins in repelling a Gloucester attack gaining the loud approval of the home fans.

Then came a big contribution at the other end from the Wales centre as Burke’s pass sent him through a gap down the right before he pirouetted away from Ruan Ackermann’s attempted tackle to put the hosts ahead.

Unfortunately for Tompkins, his game took a turn for the worse in the 34th minute as his pass inside was easily picked off by Carreras, who had a clear run for a converted try that put Gloucester back in front.

They retained their two-point lead into half-time, but Saracens snatched that off them five minutes into the second half when Dan scored off the back of a driving maul, with Burke converting from out wide.

An excellent tackle by Elliot Daly then dumped George Barton into touch close to the try-line as Gloucester came close to a quick reply.

Then came an action replay of Saracens’ third try as they claimed the bonus point via Dan being given another armchair ride to the line with what was his final act before being replaced by Jamie George.

Gloucester’s error count and discipline had really cost them since the restart as Saracens territorially dominated a match that had previously been even.

How they had seized control was illustrated by Juan Martin Gonzalez stripping his fellow Argentinian Carreras of the ball before rampaging his way over down the left to seal victory for the hosts.

There was still time for Saracens to score their sixth try of the evening with five minutes remaining as George managed to force his way over in the corner.