Premiership: Gloucester 36-23 London Irish

A late attempt by Steve Varney allowed Gloucester to see off London Irish in a tightly-fought contest at Kingsholm.

Agustin Creevy's attempt had put Irish 20-17 forward after 52 minutes however Gloucester hit again strongly.

The Premiership's prime attempt scorer Ollie Thorley crossed for his eleventh of the season within the opening interval.

Paddy Jackson's early penalty put Irish forward earlier than the hosts scored the opening attempt when Jake Polledri intercepted a cross and offloaded to Lloyd Evans to go below the posts.

Jackson and Evans then exchanged penalties earlier than Thorley followed-up his 4 tries in opposition to Leicester final week with one other rating.

He completed off an expansive transfer which began at a line-out simply contained in the Irish 22 and swept throughout the pitch to the alternative nook.

However the guests hit again two minutes earlier than half-time when Thorley was handed-off by his reverse quantity Ollie Hassell-Collins, who crossed the whitewash to chop the half-time result in simply 4 factors.

It obtained higher for Irish after the break when Argentine hooker Creevy dotted the ball all the way down to put them into the lead.

However the hosts responded properly and Welsh winger Rees-Zammit confirmed electrical tempo to dart between Hassell-Collins and Tom Homer and regain the lead.

Stanley added the bonus level attempt after 64 minutes earlier than Jackson's penalty made it 29-23 with 13 minutes remaining, however Varney's rating settled issues.

The defeat is London Irish's fifth in as many video games because the restart, whereas Gloucester transfer as much as seventh, degree on factors with Northampton Saints.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington instructed BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"They got here with a whole lot of warmth, tried to mess all our breakdowns up and rattle our cage and we took a little bit of time to adapt to that, just a little bit longer than I'd have preferred, however ultimately we confirmed actually nice character.

"We won't fault the onerous work that the boys are doing and their ability units are good when it comes off, however there's clearly areas we would prefer to sharpen up.

"Video games do ebb and movement, we may take management of it just a little bit extra however that is all studying for us as a group and an understanding of how we wish to play, however there's some actual positives immediately."

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"I would not say it was our greatest efficiency because the restart as we at all times wish to win and I used to be pissed off by our lack of ability to complete off a lot of possibilities.

"I do know we is usually a lot higher and shall be so sooner or later however there have been positives from us as we nonetheless fronted up within the set piece and in different areas in opposition to a robust aspect.

"There's particular enchancment and we're moving into the fitting route however I am upset that we conceded two tries from two set-pieces as we should not be doing that."

Gloucester: Woodward; Thorley, Harris, Atkinson, Could; Evans, Varney; Rapava-Ruskin, Marais, Balmain, Slater, Garvey, Clement, Ludlow, Polledri.

Replacements: Singleton, Fourie, Stanley, Ackermann, Reid, Simpson, Twelvetrees, Rees-Zammit.

London Irish: Homer; Loader, Williams, Hepetema, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Phipps; Elrington, Creevy, Kepu, Nott, de Chaves, Rogerson, Cowan, Tuisue.

Replacements: Cornish, Goodrick-Clarke, Hoskins, Cooke, Donnell, Meehan, Neal, Stokes.

Referee: Hamish Smales