Gloucester run in six tries for Aviva Premiership bonus point win over London Welsh

Gloucester: Scored six tries

Gloucester ran in six tries in a comfortable 48-10 bonus point victory over Aviva Premiership bottom side London Welsh at their Kingsholm ground on Saturday.

But injuries took the gloss off the win for Gloucester, whose tries came from Henry Purdy (two), Charlie Sharples, Matt Kvesic, Ross Moriarty and Sila Puafisi. James Hook added 18 points with six conversions and two penalties.

Carl Kirwan scored London Welsh's only try with Will Robinson adding the conversion plus a penalty.

When Gloucester led 27-3 at the interval, Welsh again looked set for a thrashing but they battled hard as the home side, affected by injuries, became disjointed and ragged.

Henry Trinder, Kvesic and Sharples were all injury victims which enabled Welsh to compete after the interval.

Gloucester gave a first Premiership start to scrum-half Calum Braley, with centre Trinder, back from injury, starting for the first time since September.

Welsh made nine changes following last week's heavy defeat at home to Sale. Koree Britton, Nick Scott, Richard Thorpe, Opeti Fonua and Seb Jewell were all ruled out through injury. Rob Elloway was recruited from Cornish Pirates to make his debut at hooker with Robinson and Piri Weepu together at half-back.

Hook and Robinson exchanged early penalties but both teams suffered early injury blows when the unlucky Trinder was stretchered off with Welsh second-row James Down also leaving the field.

Hook restored Gloucester's lead with a penalty before Tinder's replacement, Mark Atkinson, created the first try. The centre burst past a couple of defenders to put Welsh on the back foot and Moriarty was on hand to crash over.

Gloucester soon had a second when a skilfully executed three-quarter movement saw Sharples race through a huge hole in the Welsh defence to score and, with two conversions from Hook, the hosts led 20-3 at the end of the first quarter.

Welsh wing Alan Awcock was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and the home side immediately took advantage to score their third try through Kvesic.

Awcock returned from the sin-bin with no further damage done to the scoreboard and the Welsh looked to have their first try but Dean Schofield lost possession of the ball as he dived for the touchdown.

Gloucester replaced Sharples at the interval with scrum-half Dan Robson, who was forced to play on the wing as the home side only had two backs on the replacement bench.

Welsh showed some spirit to score their try when Kirwan powered off for Robinson to convert before Gloucester suffered another injury blow when Kvesic was helped off with an arm injury.

This did not prevent them collecting their bonus point when an alert Purdy was too quick for Welsh to score Gloucester's fourth try.

The game became very poor as both teams struggled to come to terms with the increasingly heavy pitch but Gloucester had the final say when the impressive Purdy and Puafisi crossed in the last five minutes with Hook converting both.