Gloucester snatch final Champions Cup place with win over Newcastle

Gloucester sealed their Champions Cup place for next season with a convincing 54-21 victory over bottom-club Newcastle at Kingsholm as the bonus-point win was enough to deprive Harlequins of the eighth and final spot.

It was not all plain-sailing for Gloucester as they trailed at the end of the first quarter but they then proceeded to blow away their opponents starting with a four-try blitz.

Ben Redshaw scored a hat-trick of tries and Arthur Clark, Caolan Englefield, Max Llewellyn, James Venter and Seb Blake were also on the scoresheet, with Charlie Atkinson converting seven.

George McGuigan, Tom Christie and Simon Benitez Cruz scored Newcastle’s tries. Brett Connon converted two and Ben Healy one.

Matias Alemanno led out Gloucester for his 100th and final appearance for the club and it took just a minute for his side to take the lead when Redshaw skipped past two defenders to score.

Newcastle’s response was swift, coming from a line-out in the home 22 from where Jamie Hodgson and Connon combined neatly to send McGuigan over.

The visitors continued to impress and it came as no surprise when they took the lead when a burst from Harrison Obatoyinbo put the defence on the back foot for Christie to force his way over from close range to give Red Bulls a 14-7 lead at the end of a competitive first quarter.

Gloucester’s malfunctioning line-out continued to hinder their progress but they overcame this to draw level when Clark benefitted from a quickly-taken penalty to gallop over.

Three minutes later, the home side scored their third try when a poor kick from Ethan Grayson gave Atkinson the chance to capitalise by sending Englefield racing over.

Red Bulls then suffered two blows in quick succession with first their No 8 Freddie Lockwood limping off before a break from Llewellyn tore the defence to ribbons for Redshaw to run in the bonus-point try.

There was still time for Gloucester to score their fourth try in only 11 minutes as Llewellyn raced over for a 35-14 interval lead.

After the restart, Alemanno looked to have celebrated his feat but TMO replays showed that he had lost possession in the process of touching down.

However Gloucester were not to be denied for long as Blake soon extended their advantage before McGuigan was sin-binned for a deliberate offside, with the hosts taking full advantage with a driving line-out try from Venter.

Newcastle were staring down the barrel of a record defeat at the hands of Gloucester but a well-judged cross-field kick from Healy was collected by Benitez Cruz to score but the home side had the final say when Redshaw completed his hat-trick with an excellent individual try.