Referee injured as play-off hopefuls Saracens beat Gloucester

Rotimi Segun’s early brace eased Saracens towards a 30-14 victory over Gloucester at the StoneX Stadium that put them back in the mix for the Gallagher Prem play-offs.

The door was opened by fourth-placed Exeter’s defeat against Harlequins earlier on Saturday, and against a Cherry and Whites side that offered little, the six-time champions’ fourth win in a row never looked in doubt.

Sarries are now four points behind the Chiefs in the standings, their late-season surge meaning their outgoing director of rugby Mark McCall still has a chance of signing off with another title.

Saracens opened the scoring in some style in the seventh minute when Fergus Burke made a break down the left and passed to Max Malins, who beat one would-be tackler before his ball inside allowed Segun to bag the first try.

Burke could not convert, but he was able to extend the hosts’ lead to 8-0 with a penalty from in front of the posts after Gloucester were pinged for offside.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Northampton

16

13

2

1

67

2

Bath

16

12

4

0

63

3

Leicester

15

11

4

0

57

4

Exeter Chiefs

16

9

6

1

55

5

Saracens

16

9

7

0

52

6

Bristol

16

10

6

0

50

7

Sale

15

4

11

0

28

8

Harlequins

16

5

11

0

26

9

Gloucester

16

4

12

0

25

10

Newcastle

16

1

15

0

7

It was starting to look all too easy for Sarries when Segun scored his second after 13 minutes as the winger got through some flimsy tackling to cross the whitewash in a first-phase move following a line-out inside the visitors’ 22.

There was a change of referee after half an hour when Adam Leal went off with an Achilles injury and assistant George Selwood replaced his flag with the whistle to take charge of proceedings.

That brought a slight delay for a Saracens penalty for hands in the ruck, but given it was from bang in front of the sticks it was no problem for Burke – another three points.

This gave the home side an 18-0 half-time lead, which was extended further four minutes into the second half when Charlie Bracken whipped a pass right for Ben Earl, who barged his way over from a few metres out for an unconverted score.

The bonus point Sarries needed was in the bag after 52 minutes when Theo Dan, in his first involvement after coming off the bench, was given an armchair ride to the line off a driving maul, with Owen Farrell converting from out wide.

Gloucester then finally got themselves on the board in the 71st minute when the ball went through the hands of Caolan Englefield, Charlie Atkinson and Ben Loader before Will Joseph scored in the left-hand corner.

Saracens finished the match with 14 men when Dan was sin-binned after a TMO check showed his shoulder made contact with Jack Clement’s head.

In his absence, the Cherry and Whites ran in another consolation with two minutes left when Freddie Thomas did well to get his off-load away to Joseph, who scampered away to score his second.