Gloucester second after Bristol triumph

The hosts scored tries through Olly Morgan, Peter Buxton (two), Alex Brown and Ryan Lamb in a one-sided romp.

Bottom-placed Bristol meanwhile had to make do with a late touchdown from David Lemi.

Cherry and Whites boss Dean Ryan named no less than nine internationals in the starting side with another four - including Olly Barkley and Lesley Vainikolo - on the bench. And, although Bristol fought bravely in the first quarter of an hour, they were always likely to be outgunned by the more powerful home side.

Fly-half Adrian Jarvis kicked an early penalty for Bristol after Gloucester were penalised 30 metres out from their posts, but it was only a rare appearance in the home 22. By half-time, Gloucester were bearing down on a try bonus point already as they led 25-3, and could have had more had it not been for some brave defending and a couple of unforced mistakes.

Former England scrum-half Shaun Perry came on at the interval for Scotsman Graeme Beveridge and immediately gave the visitors some impetus.

It stemmed Gloucester's momentum for 10 minutes and put them within scoring range on occasions. However, for all the hard metres that Bristol gained, a bruising tackle in midfield and a handling mistake under pressure kept them frustrated.

And the bonus point came for Gloucester just before the hour when an attack involving Mike Tindall, who nearly got over, saw the ball reach the outstanding Luke Narraway near the posts and he sent lock Brown over.

It did not help Bristol either that centre Ed Barnes threw a wild pass on half-way which was intercepted by Lamb to race 50 metres under the posts, making his own conversion simple.

There was some crumbs of comfort for the visitors to take on the short drive home when wing Lemi sprinted in at the left corner, and Barnes booted a brilliant touchline conversion.