Gloucester 41-26 Northampton: Cherry and Whites miss out on playoffs despite a thumping win over Saints

The atmosphere before kick-off was electric at Kingsholm and it didn’t take long for The Cherry and Whites to bounce off of the crowds energy. A lovely switch from fly half Gareth Anscombe created an overlap and some fluid hands provided Jack Cotgreave with nothing but space ahead to open the scoring in the 4th minute for the hosts. The extras were put through by Santi Carreras.

The lead didn’t last long however as The Saints powered through the Gloucester pack just four minutes later when a powerful Ollie Sleightholme run set up a scoop and score for Tom Pearson. Rory Hutchinson was successful with his first kick of the afternoon levelling up the scores.

An injury to Saints skipper Ed Prowse gave the visitors a penalty on the Gloucester five metre line which was quickly turned into seven points when a darting pass picked out Tom Litchfield who had an easy put down just outside the posts. Gloucester thought they had responded quickly but a second try for Cotgreave but it was ruled out as the young winger stepped into touch.

A beautiful line out move saw a pair of passes split open the Saints defence, the first by Tomos Williams and the second by Seb Atkinson gave Cotgreave got his second of the match in the 26th minute with a put down identical to his first. Carreras missed the extras reducing the deficit to two points for the hosts.

Just as the hosts started to look shakey, they scored a pair of breakaway tries after the half hour mark, the first from a vintage Christian Wade try with an intercept from the half way line and the second from a beautiful bit of skill from Arthur Clark who’s offload set up Tomos Williams with a foot race to the corner.

It was the visitors who opened the second half scoring through scrum half Jonny Weimann, a beautiful show and go caught the Gloucester defence out providing the Englishman an easy score. Hutchinson got the extras reducing the deficit to one point for The Saints.

Gloucester responded immediately with their fifth try through Jack Cotgreave. The teenage winger was in the right place once more and a step on Jake Garside gave the young man his first premiership hattrick.

Five tries turned to six when Seb Atkinson thundered through The Saints defence after Wade outpaced his opposite number providing an easy two on one for the centre to score. Carreras got the extras giving the hosts a 15 point lead with 25 minutes still to play.

Northampton kept themselves in the game through a driving maul which overpowered the Gloucester defence giving Iakopo Mapu an easy put down at the back of the maul.

Gloucester put the game to bed with a score in the final seconds by Christian Wade, a turnover in their own 22 was passed out wide very quickly and Wade put on the jets to outrun the rest of the field. Ruan Ackermann took the final conversion of the match but his effort was short and wide.

Tries: 7 (Cotgreave 4’ 26’ 50’, Wade 31’ 80’, Williams 34’, Atkinson 55’)

Conversions: 3 (Carreras 4’ 50’ 55’)

Yellow cards: 1 (Fasogbon 39’)

STARTING XV: 15. Santi Carreras 14. Christian Wade 13. Chris Harris 12. Seb Atkinson 11. Jack Cotgreave 10. Gareth Anscombe 9. Tomos Williams 1. Ciaran Knight 2. Jack Singleton 3. Afo Fasogbon 4. Freddie Clarke (5. Arthur Clark 6. Jack Clement 7. Lewis Ludlow (c) 8. Ruan Ackermann

REPLACEMENTS: 16. Seb Blake 17. Jamal Ford-Robinson 18. Kirill Gotovtsev 19. Cam Jordan 20. Freddie Thomas 21. Caolan Englefield 22. Will Butler 23. George Barton

Tries: 4 (Pearson 8’, Litchfield 17’, Weimann 49’, Mapu 60’)

Conversions: 3 (Hutchinson 9’ 17’ 49’)

STARTING XV: 15. Jake Garside 14. Toby Cousins 13. Henry Lumley 12. Tom Litchfield 11. Ollie Sleightholme 10. Rory Hutchinson 9. Jonny Weimann 1. Tarek Haffar 2. Henry Walker 3. Luke Green 4. Ed Prowse (captain) 5. Chunya Munga 6. Archie Benson 7. Tom Pearson 8. Fyn Brown

REPLACEMENTS: 16. Nathan Langdon 17. Emmanuel Iyogun 18. Elliot Millar-Mills 19. Callum Hunter-Hill 20. Tom Lockett 21. Iakopo Mapu 22. James Pater 23. Ewan Baker

Ciaran Knight - 6/10 – Knight is a solid and dependable presence in the Gloucester scrum and won a pair of scrum penalties for the hosts.

Jack Singleton - 5/10 – Singleton was solid in open play but his lineout throwing was inaccurate at best and resulted in a few turnovers.

Afo Fasogbon - 5/10 – Fasogbon made some big hits and some heavy carries but was sinbinned just before half and didn’t get back onto the pitch.

Freddie Clarke - 6/10 – A faithful servant at Kingsholm, Clarke left the pitch to a boisterous standing ovation, he put his heart on his sleeve in his final appearance covering what seemed like every blade of grass.

Arthur Clark - 8/10 – Clark was disruptive at the lineout; he won the ball back for Gloucester multiple times this afternoon and some instinctive play on the floor set up Tomos Williams’s try just before half.

Jack Clement - 7/10 – Although Clement will not grab any headlines with is performance today, he was solid and dependable in the breakdown as well as providing a lot of big hits around the park.

Lewis Ludlow - 6/10 – Was overshadowed by the effectiveness of Ackermann and Clement in the backrow today but was vital at times in the breakdown for Gloucester.

Ruan Ackerman - 7/10 – It was his last appearance in Cherry and White and he was at his jackaling best. The Springbok was disruptive at the breakdown and was part of the pressure which held up The Saints on they try line just before half.

Tomos Williams - 8/10 – The architect for much of Gloucester’s attack today, he was superb and is arguably the signing of the season.

Gareth Anscombe - 6/10 – Anscombe’s decision making under pressure was superb but his execution was up and down at times.

Jack Cotgreave - 9/10 – A first premiership hattrick, Cotgreave timed his runs well and always seemed to pop up when Gloucester needed him too the most.

Seb Atkinson – 8/10 – What a season the young centre is having, he’s been instrumental to Gloucester and has been well rewarded with his first senior England call up. He was at his best today picking some beautiful lines and setting up a pair of tries.

Chris Harris - 6/10 – It was the Scots last appearance at Kingsholm and his illustrious career in Cherry and White was rounded off with a solid defensive showing. He made some heavy hits and cut out crucial lines to keep The Saints out of the Gloucester 22 for most of the game.

Christian Wade - 8/10 – He finishes his time in the premiership just short of Chris Ashton’s 101 try record but he added another two to his tally this afternoon and set up a couple more for his winger partner Cotgreave.

Santi Carreras - 7/10 – He has been a fan favourite at Kingsholm since he signed for The Cherry and Whites in 2020 and he was fluid in attack this afternoon. He also provided some great clearances to relieve pressure but his inaccuracy from the tee prevented the hosts from pulling away.

Replacements - 6/10 – They picked up where the starters left off and upped the work rate and tempo of the match. Some great tackles, specifically from George Barton, helped turn the ball over and put back in Cherry and White hands.

Gloucester will see 22 players leave Kingsholm at the conclusion of the 2024/2025 season including some fan favourites in Chris Harris and Santi Carreras not to mention the trio of Freddie Clarke, Charlie Chapman and Ruan Ackermann who have all been at Kingsholm for at least half a decade. With Harris and Carreras both off to bitter rivals Bath it’ll be intriguing to see how George Skivington can incorporate the new signings to replace the boots that have been left to fill.

Although the Cherry and Whites put 41 points on the champions cup runners up it wasn’t enough to see Gloucester advance to the final four with Sale, Leicester and Bristol all winning it means Skivington’s men finish 5th their highest position since 2021-2022. The wait to return to the playoffs enters its 7th season for the Kingsholm faithful.

It has been a torrid end to the season for Northampton, defeat against Union Bordeaux-Begles in Cardiff last Saturday and then defeat at Kingsholm today sees The Saints finish the season trophyless and in 8th place in the league their worst league finish since 2019-2020.

It’s a well spoken debate in English rugby that since the dissolution of Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish we have not seen another team promoted into the Premiership.

There have been many critics of this and with the news earlier in the season that Newcastle Falcons were close to administration it is still an issue that is prevalent. Saints director of rugby, Phil Dowson believes the first thing that needs to happen is “a single rugby club in the world needs to start making money, we want promotion and relegation but we want investment from outside, in an ideal world yes we want it but we got to make sure the clubs start making money”.

Promotion and relegation is something many rugby fans are keen to see to add a sense of jeopardy to the season but until there are big changes in the financial side of the game the concept of promotion seems a distant dream.

The big story coming out of Kingsholm this season was Gloucester’s attacking prowess, the Cherry and White’s scored 576 points in the league this season an increase of 154 compared to last season’s tally. Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington spoke on the need for his side to find a balance for the entirety of a season,

"We have been at our best when we have had a really balanced game, Bristol at home we had a really good defence and we scored a load of tries off of the back of that, where we have fallen short is games where it has come a bit gung-ho and we have drifted a bit, finding that balance has got to be the change”.