Gloucester crush Sarries
March 30, 2002

Fly-half Ludovic Mercier was the key man for Gloucester as they swept Saracens aside 36-13 in their latest Zurich Premiership clash.

Mercier notched up 19 points from five penalties and two conversions in a match of great intensity which saw two Gloucester players - Terry Fanolua and Mark Cornwell - sin-binned in the first half and Saracens' Kieron Roche receive a yellow card in the second half.

Consequently, the fierceness of the tackling meant neither side produced much play of real quality.

Gloucester got off to a flier with 10 points in the first five minutes as Mercier, who much to the relief of home fans has just signed a new three-year contract, slotted over a second minute penalty.

He was on target again a few minutes later with a conversion after Robert Todd finished off a good move by the backs for a try.

Saracens gradually got back into the game with a penalty by Kevin Sorrell and a try by Gerald Arasa which Sorrell also converted.

The centre added another penalty just before half-time but by that stage Gloucester had moved on to 20 points after a try by Fanolua which Mercier converted.

The Saracens half-time pep talk worked wonders and they had Gloucester at panic stations for 10 minutes after the restart.

But when a Sorrell penalty bounced back off the posts Gloucester recovered their earlier control to move to a useful win thanks to Mercier's boot and a late try by Andy Gomarsall.

Unfortunately Mercier was laid out in a Saracens attack just before the end and had to be helped off looking very groggy.

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