Rugby Union: Good home news at Tens: Gloucester's runaway win

GLOUCESTER won the inaugural Worthington National Tens at Kingsholm yesterday, plundering four tries in a runaway 29-0 victory over Harlequins.

The beaten Pilkington Cup finalists fielded just four of the side who lost to Leicester on Saturday, never recovering from a disastrous start which included losing the tournament's top scorer Stuart Thresher (34) with an injury in the opening minutes of the final.

Paul Ashmead, Paul Holford and Ian Morgan charged over for Gloucester tries to establish a 19-0 lead after just 10 minutes.

Tim Smith gave the Gloucester faithful more to cheer about in the second half with a penalty to add to his three conversions before Peter Mills romped over for the final try.

Second division Wakefield caused the biggest upset of the day when they sent Northampton crashing 36-5 in the first round.

Both finalists received pounds 6,000 with the semi-finalists getting pounds 2,500.

WORTHINGTON NATIONAL TENS (Gloucester RFC): First round: Wasps 26 Newcastle-Gosforth 5; Bristol 31 London Scottish 14; Gloucester 24 West Hartlepool 0; Wakefield 36 Northampton 5; Bath 26 Waterloo 14; London Irish 0 Saracens 29; Orrell 35 Rugby 7; Nottingham 5 Harlequins 38. Quarter- finals: Wasps 17 Bristol 14; Gloucester 14 Wakefield 5; Bath 12 Saracens 21; Orrell 12 Harlequins 35. Semi- finals: Gloucester 21 Wasps 19; Harlequins 26 Saracens 12. Final: Gloucester 29 Harlequins 0.