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Saracens make light work of Gloucester
By PA
Tom Parton scored the earliest hat-trick in Gallagher Premiership history as Saracens eased to a 46-24 victory over a much-changed Gloucester at the StoneX Stadium.
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It took just under 21 minutes of the game for Parton to run in the first three of the seven tries Sarries scored as they consolidated their place in the top four and put their Investec Champions Cup thrashing against Bordeaux Begles behind them.
They were helped by Gloucester making 11 alterations from their European Challenge Cup quarter-final win against the Ospreys, although winger Josh Hathaway did claim a hat-trick of his own for the visitors.
It took Saracens seven minutes to open the scoring when the ball went through the hands of Aled Davies, Owen Farrell and Alex Goode before Parton finished down the left, with Farrell converting from out wide.
Parton made it a double in the 12th minute when he was found in acres of space by Goode after he had been picked out by a long pass from Farrell, who again added the extras.
A quickfire hat-trick for the former London Irish man was then completed when he nipped in again down his wing after Davies had broken away from a driving maul.
Sarries thought they had secured the try bonus point after half an hour when Tom Willis burrowed over, but a knock-on by Ben Earl at the preceding ruck led to the score being ruled out.
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The hosts were, however, playing with an advantage and ensured they finished the attack with three points as Farrell knocked over a simple penalty.
It took less than two minutes of the second half for Saracens’ 22-0 half-time lead to be extended when Theo McFarland rose above Jake Morris to gather Farrell’s cross-field kick and score Sarries’ fourth try.
To make matters worse for Gloucester, they had Albert Tuisue sent to the sin bin for making head-on-head contact with Rotimi Segun.
Having been denied earlier, Willis did get on the scoresheet in the 57th minute when he was given an armchair ride to the line off the back of a driving maul.
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Gloucester finally got themselves on the board with an hour played when Hathaway chased down a neat kick through from hooker Seb Blake to score.
Normal service was quickly resumed, however, when Manu Vunipola went through a gaping hole down the centre before his pass put Olly Hartley in the clear.
Saracens soon had their seventh try when Hartley timed his pass to put Lucio Cinti into the corner on the left.
The Cherry and Whites belatedly rallied late on as Hathaway completed his treble by cashing in on a couple of loose Sarries’ passes before Blake went over off the final play.
