mens
Gallagher-Prime Minister
Gloucester continued their impressive start to the Gallagher Prem season by thrashing the unfortunates 48-0 Harlequins in Kingsholm.
The eight-try victory followed their impressive opening day victory over Exeter at Sandy Park – but that success was far more deserved as Harlequins were unbelievably poor on the day.
Quins were outplayed in every aspect of the game and never looked like opening their scoring. They were without several leading players incl England internationals, Marcus Smith and Alex Dombrandt, but they will need time to recover from this.
Ben Loader, Jac Morgan, Will Trenholm, Charlie Atkinson, Seb Atkinson, Will Joseph, Caolon Engefield and George Barton were all on the scoresheet for tries, with Barton converting four.
Gloucester suffered an early blow losing South African lock Jean Kleyn to an HIA in the first minute, but they overcame this setback to dominate the opening exchanges and were rewarded when Loader headed in a Charlie Atkinson cross to score.
Kleyn returned in time to help his side continue to pound the opposition line as Quins conceded six penalties in the first quarter. As a result, Will Evans was booked for persistent team fouls only for the home side to take immediate advantage when Morgan finished off the ball.
Kleyn went for another assessment before Evans returned from the sin bin, but he could easily have been replaced by James Dun, whose deliberate knock escaped the appropriate sanction.
It mattered little as it was still one-way traffic with Trenholm going over from close range before Kleyn re-entered the fray once more in time to witness another try when Charlie Atkinson parried some feeble tackles for the bonus point. Barton added the conversion for a 24-0 lead at the interval.
Within four minutes of the restart, Gloucester sealed victory by scoring two more tries, with Seb Atkinson and Englefield racing over.
Joseph and George Barton were next before Gloucester announced changes with skipper Dewi Lake, prop Afolabi Fasogbon and the two Atkinsons all gone.
After 63 minutes, the former Northampton the captain, George Furbank, ended a miserable competitive debut for him by being substituted.
However, the substitutions disrupted Gloucester’s flow so incredibly that the last quarter ended goalless to allow Harlequins to avoid the embarrassment of conceding more than 50 points.
