Seven-try Quins run Gloucester ragged

Ugo Monye scored a hat-trick as Harlequins smashed Gloucester 53-15 in the Aviva Premiership at the Stoop on Saturday.

Harlequins bounced back from successive defeats in emphatic style to keep their play-off hopes alive.

Quins went into the game after back-to-back defeats at Newcastle and London Irish, but after Joe Gray touched down in the 23rd minute for the first of seven tries for the home side, it was pretty much one-way traffic.

Gloucester were simply left stunned and as their 11-game winning run came to a shuddering halt all hopes of catching top two Leicester and Saracens disintegrated.

Quins fly-half Rory Clegg settled Quins' nerves with a 10th-minute penalty before converting Gray's opening try and although Nicky Robinson replied with a penalty for Gloucester, George Robson and Monye both powered over for converted tries within the space of three minutes shortly before half-time to give the home side a commanding 24-3 lead.

Quins continued to dominate after the break and this was reflected in another penalty slotted over by Clegg before Monye grabbed his second try of the afternoon, again converted by Clegg, 10 minutes into the second half.

Outside centre George Low darted over for the first of his two touch downs nine minutes later to the delight of the home faithful.

Gloucester replacement Henry Trinder ran through to score in the 71st minute and Robinson converted, but the points were scant consolation as Lowe ran in a converted try before Monye secured his hat-trick try in the dying moments.

Tim Molenaar added a consolation try at the death for Gloucester, but Robinson skewed his kick to complete a miserable afternoon for the visitors.

end

The scorers:

For Harlequins:
Tries: Gray, Robson, Monye 3, Lowe 2
Cons: Clegg 6
Pens: Clegg 2

For Gloucester:
Tries: Trinder, Molenaar
Con: Robinson
Pen: Robinson

Yellow card: Strokosch (Gloucester - 58th min)

Harlequins:15 Mike Brown, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 George Lowe, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 George Robson, 4 Ollie Kohn, 3 John Andress, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Chris Brooker, 17 Ceri Jones, 18 Mark Lambert, 19 Tomas Vallejos, 20 Will Skinner, 21 Dave Moore, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Tom Williams.

Gloucester: 15 Freddie Burns, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Tim Molenaar, 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Tom Voyce, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Luke Narraway (capt), 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Will James, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.
Replacements: 16 Olivier Azam, 17 Yann Thomas, 18 Rupert Harden, 19 Alex Brown, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Jordi Pasqualin, 22 Henry Trinder, 23 Jonny May

Referee: JP Doyle