Kameli Ratuvou dives in to score © Getty Images

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Matches: Gloucester Rugby 6 - 35 Wasps | London Irish 18 - 12 Leicester Tigers | Northampton Saints 21 - 16 Sale Sharks | Worcester Warriors 22 - 26 Harlequins | Bath Rugby 16 - 27 Newcastle Falcons

Tournaments/Tours: Guinness Premiership

Teams: Bath Rugby | England | Harlequins | Leeds Tykes | Leicester Tigers | London Irish | Newcastle Falcons | Northampton Saints | Sale Sharks | Saracens | Wasps | Worcester Warriors

Fiji centre Kameli Ratuvou scored tries either side of half-time to help Saracens back to the top of the Guinness Premiership with a 21-15 win over Leeds at Vicarage Road.

Leeds replied with four penalties and a drop-goal from fly-half Ceiron Thomas, but rarely threatened the Saracens line in a scrappy game punctuated by 27 penalties from fussy official David Rose.

Glen Jackson chipped home his first penalty from 25 yards after Leeds were adjudged offside and he and Thomas traded kicks in a scrappy opening. Thomas was sin-binned for Leeds in the 33rd minute after deliberately handling in a ruck to deny Saracens a try-scoring opportunity.

Saracens finally broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time. Leeds fullback Leigh Hinton scorned the chances to kick possession dead with time over and cost his team a try. Schalk Brits broke through the middle, and when Jackson passed left to Ratuvou he dummied to pass on to Chris Wyles before smashing through Richard Welding's tackle to score.

Leeds reduced the deficit to two points when Thomas kicked his third successful penalty two minutes after the break only for Saracens to score their second try. From a lineout, three passes armed Ratuvou to crash through the defence on the left of the posts, Jackson converting.

Bath's season went from bad to worse with a 27-16 Guinness Premiership defeat at home to Newcastle - which was their sixth loss in eight matches in all competitions.

As so often, they led at the break but failed to press home the advantage against a confident and inventive Falcons side. Kiwi fly-half Jimmy Gopperth tormented the home defence with his kicking out of hand, setting up the winning try for fullback Charlie Amesbury with a clever dink off the outside of this foot.

Scrum-half Micky Young was just as much of a handful, scoring the try of the game on the hour with an 80-metre intercept. The deadlock was broken in the 24th minute after Nick Abendanon countered from Gopperth's kick - supported by Julian Salvi, Claassens and Jonny Faamatuainu. Flatman set up the ruck, and Newcastle gave away a penalty converted by Nicky Little.

Almost straight from the restart, Bath added to their lead with a try by Matt Carraro. The ball was turned over at a ruck on the visitors' 22, and Pieter Dixon fired out a long pass to the Australian centre - who squeezed in at the corner for an unconverted try.

Just before the break, Little failed to hold Amesbury in a tackle - and the fullback wriggled away to score in the corner under a pile of bodies. Gopperth converted from the touchline to make the score 8-7 at the break. The game suddenly came to life after the restart, Abendanon's stunning counter-attack creating a try for captain Claassens but within three minutes Newcastle had cancelled it out with an unconverted try of their own, scored by James Hudson.

Young intercepted a pass from Dixon in his own 22 to run in for a try converted by Gopperth - and although an increasingly desperate Bath responded with a drop goal by Ryan Davis, Gopperth kicked a penalty and then slid a delightful grubber kick through for Amesbury to score.

Mark Van Gisbergen scored two tries as Wasps cruised to a convincing 35-6 Guinness Premiership victory over Gloucester.

Wasps prop Tim Payne was the only one of seven England squad players fit to start and, if the injuries disrupted the teams, it showed in the opening half as Wasps led a dreadful game where neither side had a creative clue, particularly so Gloucester.

Former New Zealand fly-half Carlos Spencer booted two out of four penalties in the period but his half-back partner Rory Lawson was awfully slow to distribute ball across the home back line, particularly when Gloucester had Wasps on the rack. The Londoners, who started the game third in the league, did have a little more about them and grabbed the only try of the period after 14 minutes where the scrum-half Joe Simpson and fly-half Dave Walder combined to give centre Dominic Waldouck a chance to cut the home line.

The second was set by some excellent work from hooker Joe Ward who secured important metres under the home posts before Simpson swung it away for wing David Lemi to send Van Gisbergen over despite some close attention from the defence. Wasps made absolutely certain of victory in the last 10 minutes when the outstanding Simpson found a gap through the home midfield and, when tackled 15 metres from the line, fed his captain Serge Betsen in support to go under the posts. Van Gisbergen got his second try and Wasps' fourth after 78 minutes when he went over in the left corner following a run of 22 metres.

Northampton defeated Sale 21-16 at Franklin's Gardens to dull the pain of their European defeat in Perpignan last weekend.

Sale paid a heavy price for the sin-binning of Andy Tuilagi - conceding two tries while the Samoa international was off the pitch and slumping to only their second defeat in nine meetings with Northampton at Franklin's Gardens.

Fullback Ben Foden and wing Bruce Reihana scored the tries in a decisive three-minute period at the end of the first-half, forcing Sale to play catch-up in a scrappy encounter.

Lock Courtney Lawes took the chance to pass watching England coach John Wells with a rampaging performance in the loose but Northampton fly-half Shane Geraghty failed to stake his claim for promotion to England's senior squad from the Saxons with an uneven performance in which he was occasionally booed by home fans for kicking away possession.

Sale gave themselves a glimmer of hope when flanker James Gaskell stole over from the blindside of a second-half scrum - but they had to settle for a losing bonus point, sealed by a Charlie Hodgson penalty with the last kick of the match.

Nick Easter provided another injury worry for Martin Johnson by limping out of Harlequins' 26-22 win over Worcester.

The hosts gave the scoreline a more respectable appearance with a converted try just before the final whistle, with Danny Care and Mike Brown on the scoresheet for Harlequins. The Londoners enjoyed good early pressure and took the lead after keeping possession five metres from the Worcester line and setting up a ruck from which Care picked up to score. Nick Evans converted.

Evans and Willie Walker traded penalties to see Quins ahead but the visitors were then dealt two huge blows in quick succession. First, captain Easter left the field with his injury - and then Ceri Jones was sin-binned following a line-out in their 22.

Worcester began the second half strongly and were rewarded when Walker reduced the deficit to one point with a penalty goal after 45 minutes. Evans' replacement Rory Clegg's first piece of the action was to kick a 40 metre goal - and two minutes later, he added the conversion to a try from Brown which gave Quins a healthy 23 - 12 lead going into the final quarter.

Walker gave Worcester some hope with a simple penalty with nine minutes to go - but Clegg replied with one for the visitors. Worcester continued to press and were rewarded with a last-minute try from replacement Callum Black - which was converted by Walker, to give the hosts a bonus point.