Winning start for Saints at Kingsholm

Try time: George Pisi

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Teams

• Gloucester
• Northampton

Northampton Saints got their Premiership season off to a winning start on Saturday by holding on for a 24-19 win over Gloucester at Kingsholm.

George and Pisi scored a fine double as Saints ran three tries past their hosts.

In a first half controlled by Saints, two converted tries from Pisi and Dylan Hartley and a penalty from Ryan Lamb saw the visitors lead 17-6 at the interval, Freddie Burns responding for the home side.

Burns scored two further penalties, but Pisi's second score sealed the victory and an excellent start for the Midlands' outfit, despite the hosts being awarded a penalty try late on.

Expectations are currently high for the two squads and it was the visitors who enjoyed the better start.

Lamb added the extras to the Samoan centre Pisi's score before he converted Dylan Hartley's try six minutes later.

The West Country outfit hit back through two Burns' penalties to reduce the arrears to eight points, but the Saints' fly-half kicked one of his own as they led at the break.

Gloucester continued to edge closer through the boot of their fly-half, as two further three-pointers gave them hope.

But it seemed as though it wasn't to be for the Cherry and Whites as Pisi went over and Lamb was once again successful with the conversion. Although Gerrit-Jan van Velze and Paul Doran-Jones were sin-binned late on for Northampton and the hosts were awarded a penalty try, they couldn't force the victory.

The scorers:

For Gloucester:
Try: Penalty try
Con: Burns
Pens: Burns 4

For Northampton:
Tries: G. Pisi 2, Hartley
Cons: Lamb 3
Pens: Lamb

Yellow cards: Van Velze (Northampton - 66th min); Doran Jones (Northampton - 70th min)

Gloucester:15 Jonny May, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 James Simpson-Daniel, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Dan Robson, 8 Ben Morgan 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Matt Cox, 5 Alex Brown (c), 4 Tom Savage, 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Darren Dawidiuk, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Dan Murphy, 17 Huia Edmonds, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Will James, 20 Sione Kalamafoni, 21 Dave Lewis, 22 Henry Trinder, 23 Martyn Thomas

Northampton Saints:15 Ben Foden, 14 Ken Pisi, 13 George Pisi, 12 Dom Waldouck, 11 Vasily Artemyev, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 GJ Van Velze, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Phil Dowson, 5 Christian Day, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements:16 Mike Haywood, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Paul Doran Jones, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 Rhys Oakley, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Luther Burrell.

Venue: Kingsholm, Gloucester
Referee: Dave Pearson