Quins stunned by Gloucester

Key points: Freddie Burns

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• Gloucester
• Harlequins

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• Tigers maul Newcastle at Welford Road
• Bath sneak past Chiefs

Gloucester gave their play-off hopes a shot in the arm after claiming a 29-23 victory over league leaders Harlequins at Kingsholm on Saturday.

James Simpson-Daniel, who won the last of his ten England caps back in 2007, produced another classy display on his 250th appearance for Gloucester, while his back three colleagues and England hopefuls, Jonny May and Charlie Sharples, impressed in front of a crowd of 13,559 at Kingsholm.

England Saxon Freddie Burns was also on good form, kicking 14 points as well as making the break that led to Akapusi Qera's try in the second half.

Simpson-Daniel's show-and-go opened up space for Sharples wide out on the right and the winger strolled in for a ninth minute try, which Burns converted, to get the scoring underway.

Burns added a penalty to take Gloucester into double figures before Nick Evans responded with two penalties of his own to reward concerted Harlequins pressure.

A brilliant individual effort from May, which saw the full-back break through four tackles, took Gloucester further ahead, but Burns was unable to add the extras.

Harlequins pressed on and Evans' deft chip found space behind the Gloucester defence and Ross Chisholm was left with an easy run in to give the Londoners fresh hope. Evans converted.

Gloucester had the final word of a pulsating first half when Burns landed his third kick at goal after the Cherry and Whites pack won a scrum penalty.

Evans and Burns traded penalties prior to Qera crossing for Gloucester's third try on 57 minutes.

Harlequins finished the stronger and Chisholm's second try, which Evans converted, saw the league leaders leave with the consolation of a losing bonus-point.

The scorers:

For Gloucester:
Tries: Sharples, May, Qera
Con: Burns
Pen: Burns 4

For Harlequins:
Tries: Chisholm 2
Con: Evans 2
Pen: Evans 3

Gloucester: 15 Jonny May, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 James Simpson-Daniel, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Matt Cox 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Tom Savage (c), 5 Alex Brown, 4 Will James, 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Darren Dawidiuk, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Matias Cortese, 17 Dan Murphy, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Peter Buxton, 20 Brett Deacon, 21 Dave Lewis, 22 Ryan Mills, 23 Tom Voyce

Harlequins: 15 Ross Chisholm, 14 Tom Williams, 13 George Lowe, 12Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Karl Dickson, 8 Nick Easter (c), 7 Will Skinner, 6 Tom Guest, 5 Tomas Vallejos, 4 Ollie Kohn, 3 James Johnston, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Chris Brooker, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Tim Fairbrother, 19 Pete Browne, 20 Luke Wallace, 21 Danny Care, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Matt Hopper.

Referee: David Pearson
Assistant referees: Nigel Carrick, Andrew Watson
Television match official: Trevor Fisher