High-flying Gloucester notched up their seventh win in nine league outings with a hard-fought 40-19 triumph over London Irish.

The west country outfit also further cemented their position at the top of the league table with a bonus point for scoring four tries, despite being without five first-choice players because of international duty and suspensions.

The Cherry and Whites started as they meant to go on. Adam Eustace soon cancelled London Irish's early lead through a Barry Everitt penalty when the forward crashed over on the left wing after four minutes.

Gloucester built up the momentum through the midfield before Andy Gomersall switched the run of play. He offloaded to Ludovic Mercier and Terry Fanolua before Eustace scored and Mercier converted.

Everitt replied with an 11th-minute penalty but Mercier kept the visitors' 13-6 ahead with two further penalties.

Irish managed to claw their way back into contention before the break, though luck had a large part to play.

Fly-half Everitt again converted a penalty to reduce the deficit to just three points but the home side then had referee Ashley Rowden to thank for helping them draw level.

Good work from scrum-half Darren Edwards set Michael Horak up to score but the full-back lost control of the ball with Gomersall hot on his heels.

However, Rowden saw fit to award a controversial penalty try which Everitt duly converted to make the score 16-16 at half-time.

Powerhouse forward Junior Paramore again put Gloucester back in the lead when he muscled his way over the try-line soon after the restart.

But Mercier missed the conversion and Everitt kept Irish's score ticking over with his fourth penalty after the sin-binning of Robert Todd. But that was where the Exiles' ran out of steam.

Gloucester's Jake Boer broke loose in the midfield to offload to James Forrester for a 64th-minute try before flanker Boer scored following the tried and tested line-out, catch and drive manoeuvre.

Argentinian prop Rodrigo Roncero then rounded off the afternoon with an injury-time converted try.

The defeat, however, for London Irish is a severe blow.

They have only two Premiership wins under their belt while nearest rivals Bath and Bristol both picked up significant results at the weekend.