Cadan Murley claimed a hat-trick of tries as Harlequins dealt a potentially fatal blow to Gloucester’s Gallagher Premiership play-off hopes with a 38-19 victory at Allianz Stadium.
Quins might be out of the race for a top-four finish but they delivered one of their most ruthless displays of the season in a six-try demolition that saw Rodrigo Isgro cross twice.
Making their rout possible was an accommodating Gloucester defence that gave player of the match Murley, Isgro and Tyrone Green the freedom of a sun-drenched Twickenham.
Marcus Smith celebrated his British and Irish Lions selection on Thursday with a commanding display that was short on fireworks but notable for the intelligent way he piloted the team around the field.
Gloucester lacked hunger for the fight and paid the price with an emphatic defeat that leaves them in sixth place, three points adrift of the play-offs with two matches remaining.
In a sign of their dominance, Quins had banked the bonus point by half-time with Murley crossing for two of their four tries, and they would have scored two more but for errors at crucial moments.
Good fortune enabled Murley’s opener with Smith’s pass to Alex Dombrandt looking suspiciously forward, but there was no arguing with the quality of the finish by the England wing.
Murley then showed his pace to outrun Christian Wade in a foot race before Green inexcusably dropped the ball over the line and Dombrandt saw an opportunist try disallowed for offside at the line-out.
Quins quickly rallied from the setback of having successive tries chalked off, Will Evans finishing a line-out maul, and the hosts then ran amok in the face of Gloucester’s defensive collapse, which was not helped by Chris Harris’ departure with injury.
Player after player slipped off tackles, allowing Isgro and Murley to touch down with Green impressing through his footwork.
The ease of Murley’s second try will give Gloucester nightmares as he ghosted into the line from a tap penalty before straightening to evade the visitors’ last line of defence with ease.
Only Wade’s screaming finish in the 33rd minute – his 91st Premiership try, leaving him 10 behind the record held by Chris Ashton – spared the visitors from a total shut-out in the first half as their backs clicked into gear.
Gloucester needed a big second half to save their Premiership season but just nine minutes in they cracked for a fifth time as Isgro raced across the field, capitalising on hesitation in the midfield to help send Murley over for his hat-trick.
Dombrandt and then Ruan Ackermann were sent to the sin bin, robbing the match of both number eights, before the Quins onslaught continued with Isgro grabbing his second.
Gloucester hit back through tries by Santiago Carreras and Jack Cotgreave, but it was too little too late.
