LEADERS Northampton secured a home semi-final in the Gallagher Premiership with a 90-0 annihilation of an under-strength Gloucester, their record win in the competition.

Winger Ollie Sleightholme scored a hat-trick as the Saints ran in 14 tries in total against a Cherry and Whites side showing 12 changes to their European Challenge Cup semi-final win against Benetton last week.

Their lack of cohesion was ruthlessly exploited by the hosts, whose scoreline is only topped in Premiership history by the 106-12 victory Richmond racked up against Bedford in 1999.

Gloucester made many changes to their side ahead of next week's cup final at the Tottenham Hotspurs stadium. 

Head coach Skivington said: “I thought there might be a heavy scoreline when I saw the team they selected.

“I knew momentum would go against us at some point and it would be hard to recover, but that was extremely painful.

“I thought Saints were absolutely ruthless. I thought they were brilliant today and our young lads just couldn’t find traction, couldn’t find their way out of it, couldn’t get anything going in the game.

The Gloucester head coach did also say that the side will be braced for “a massive challenge” when they tackle South African heavyweights The Sharks in this season’s EPCR Challenge Cup final.

Gloucester booked a place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 24 after beating Italian challengers Benetton 40-23.