Saracens smash Gloucester after Red card

Former Aviva Premiership Rugby champions Saracens went to the top of Premiership standings when they smashed Gloucester 44-12 on Sunday.

Saracens took full advantage of the early dismissal of England Saxons prop Nick Wood who received the second fastest red card in Premiership history after twice stamping on Jacques Burger’s head with just 73 seconds on the clock.

The quickest sending off belongs to Mike Watson of London Scottish, who lasted just 42 seconds against Bath in 1999.

The incident gave referee Wayne Barnes an easy decision to make and Wood trudged off to leave Gloucester with 14 men and an uphill task for virtually the entire game.

Their resistance lasted only until the third quarter when Saracens pulled clear.

Tries from Joel Tomkins, Schalk Brits and Billy Vunipola, as well as two from David Strettle produced Saracens’ second bonus-point victory in two matches, while Owen Farrell kicked 17 points.

Freddie Burns’s greater creativity saw him edge his England fly-half duel with Farrell, but the Gloucester playmaker was forced off with eight minutes remaining after receiving a heavy tackle from man of the match Burger.

Final Score Saracens (10) 44 Gloucester (12) 12

Scorers

Saracens
Tries – Tomkins, Strettle 2, Brits, B Vunipola
Pen – Farrell 3
Con – Farrell 4, Spencer
Drop –

Gloucester
Tries –
Pen – Buns 4
Con –
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee: Wayne Barnes (124th Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Paul Dix and Robin Goodliffe
TMO: Trevor Fisher.

Teams

Saracens

15 Chris Wyles , 14 Chris Ashton , 13 Joel Tomkins , 12 Duncan Taylor , 11 David Strettle , 10 Owen Farrell , 9 Richard Wigglesworth

1 Rhys Gill , 2 Jamie George , 3 Matt Stevens , 4 Steve Borthwick (c) , 5 Alistair Hargreaves , 6 Billy Vunipola , 7 Jacques Burger , 8 Ernst Joubert

Replacements : 16 Schalk Brits , 17 Mako Vunipola , 18 James Johnston , 19 Mouritz Botha , 20 Jackson Wray , 21 Ben Spencer , 22 Nils Mordt , 23 Ben Ransom

Gloucester

Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Billy Twelvetrees, James Simpson-Daniel; Freddie Burns, Tavis Knoyle, Nick Wood, Darren Dawidiuk, Rupert Harden; Tom Savage (capt), Lua Lokotui; Matt Kvesic, Akapusi Qera, Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements: Koree Britton, Dan Murphy, Yann Thomas, Elliott Stooke, Ben Morgan, Dan Robson, Mike Tindall, Martyn Thomas