Northampton 90-0 Gloucester: Rampant Saints thrash hapless Cherry and Whites... as Phil Dowson's side secure a record-breaking win at Franklin's Gardens

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson admitted to having some sympathy for Gloucester after the league leaders’ record-breaking 90-0 victory secured a home semi-final in the Gallagher Premiership.

Ninth-placed Gloucester showed where their priorities lie by making 12 changes to the team who defeated Italian outfit Benetton in the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup last week, and their makeshift line-up was torn to shreds.

Ruthless Saints ran in 14 tries at a sunny Franklin’s Gardens to rack up their biggest Premiership win, the highest points total by a home team in the competition’s history and its second-widest margin of victory.

Dowson said: ‘I know (Gloucester head coach) George Skivington pretty well and there’s clearly different priorities going on. 

'We had to do something in order to guarantee a home semi, George is building towards a European final and next season, so there were different motivating factors.

‘It’s never nice to be on the end of a 90-0 humping but, at the same time, we had a job to do.’

Ollie Sleightholme scored a hat-trick for Northampton, whose other tries came from George Furbank, Fraser Dingwall, Curtis Langdon (2), Alex Mitchell, Alex Waller, Sam Matavesi (2), Emmanuel Iyogun, Alex Moon and Tom James. Skivington said: ‘I knew momentum would go against us at some point and it would be hard to recover, but that was extremely painful.’