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Gloucester went two points clear of Bath at the top of the Guinness Premiership with a convincing 33-10 victory over Northampton at Kingsholm.

Iain Balshaw, Luke Narraway and Ollie Barkley scored first-half tries as the Cherry and Whites roared into a 20-3 half-time lead.

And although Scott Gray gave the visitors a glimmer with a score early in the second period, Lesley Vainikolo secured the bonus point with Gloucester's fourth try 22 minutes from time.

Ryan Lamb added 13 points with the boot to leave Northampton, who haven't won away yet this season, languishing near the foot of the table.

Gloucester's backline was just too quick for the Saints and this was epitomised after just eight minutes when Mike Tindall burst through before finding Vainikolo who passed inside to Balshaw to score.

After 20 minutes, Barkley started a move that saw Alasdair Strokosch take the ball inside the 22 before his perfectly timed offload saw Narraway cross.

Barkley scored in the left corner on the brink of half-time and the seal was put on the victory when Barkley put a grubber through and Vainikolo hacked the ball on and dived over the line.

Head coach Dean Ryan was satisfied by the performance and said Lamb, in particular, has taken the season by the scruff of the neck after an in-and-out campaign last year.

He said: "We will make changes next week (against Calvisano in the Heineken Cup) because you cannot afford to have the same 15 players to get you through matches. We cannot afford to lose momentum and I would like to keep us on a roll through Christmas.

"For Olly to enter the fray today was ideal. He is still with England every Monday and Tuesday and then with us which is why he was on the bench.

"He is going to start next week and this would have been another week to look and watch us but it didn't work that way.

"We still had six players out on international duty and we have benefited from some of the performances made by the youngsters today."

The defeat, though, leaves Northampton just a point above Newcastle Falcons at the foot of the Premiership.

Northampton head coach Jim Mallinder admitted it was hard to come away from the match without even a losing bonus point.

Mallinder said: "They were ruthless in the first half and scored some good tries.

"We created a few, but made a lot of mistakes. It didn't help when they scored just before half-time but even then we knew that if we kept the ball we would have a chance.

"But we were inaccurate. You've got to be accurate and take all the chances you can here. We didn't get the rub of the green and there were some harsh decisions against us, when they didn't stay on their feet, but you've got to cope with that and we were well beaten.

"We are desperately disappointed, but it's not the end of the world losing here."

Sporting Life / Eurosport