Gloucester 47 London Irish 7

GLOUCESTER ran in seven tries as they thrashed a sorry London Irish in the Anglo-Welsh Cup at Kingsholm on Saturday.

Unlike many other teams in the competition the Cherry and Whites decided to play a strong team, hoping to bounce back from the defeat against Leicester last week.

Despite their greater experience the game started slowly and it took 23 minutes for Gloucester to find the try-line.

Scrum-half and captain Willi Heinz took a quick tap penalty, taking the defence by surprise and squeezing over the line. Billy Burns added the extra two points.

Shortly afterwards Val Rapava-Ruskin got his name on the scoresheet, storming over the line from short range. Burns missed the conversion.

The opening try scorer became the villain when Heinz was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on.

However, despite putting the Gloucester line under pressure, Irish failed to capitalise on their man advantage and it was Gloucester who finished the half brighter.

Even with 14 men on the pitch the Cherry and Whites manged to create extra space and Billy Twelvetrees fed Tom Hudson to score under the posts.

A Burns’ conversion made it 19-0 at half-time.

London Irish started well after the interval and finally got on the scoreboard when Ollie Hoskins rumbled over from a short distance out. Grieg Tonks added the conversion.

However, Gloucester came back with vengeance, scoring two tries in quick succession, Jeremy Thrush scored from a metre and the in-from Henry Trinder traded passes with Lewis Ludlow before cruising to the line. Billy Twelvetrees added both conversions.

Former Bristol player Callum Braley pinched a score in the 73rd minute during a rare appearance and then Jake Polledri ran in from outside the 22 metre line after quick passing from Lloyd Evans and James Hanson. Twelvetrees added four more points.