Premiership: Saracens 46-24 Gloucester - Tom Parton scores quickest Premiership hat-trick

Tom Parton's hat-trick helped Saracens beat Gloucester 46-24 and consolidate their spot in the Premiership top four.

Parton scored three times in the first 20 minutes and 25 seconds - the earliest hat-trick in league history - as Saracens overwhelmed Gloucester.

Theo McFarland got the bonus-point try soon after the break before Tom Willis added a fifth try for the hosts.

Josh Hathaway scored a hat-trick for Gloucester as Olly Hartley and Lucio Cinti replied for the hosts.

Seb Blake crossed for a late consolation try for Gloucester that ensured a try-scoring bonus point.

The win sees Saracens move above Bath - who take on Exeter later on Saturday - into second place in the table, seven points off leaders Northampton who beat East Midlands rivals Leicester.

Gloucester remain second-from-bottom as a result of the defeat.

• Premiership table

Sarries took the lead after just seven minutes when Parton went over in the corner from Alex Goode's pass and the winger doubled the tally five minutes later as Goode again put him through.

The winger sealed his hat-trick midway through the first period as Aled Davies darted down the blind-side of a maul and sent Parton over

Tom Willis had a fourth try disallowed for a knock-on in the build up, but a 30th-minute Owen Farrell penalty soon after put Sarries further ahead as Gloucester struggled to get a foothold in the game.

It got worse for Gloucester straight after the restart as McFarland gathered Farrell's cross-field kick to get the bonus point try before Albert Tuisue was sin-binned for a high tackle on Rotimi Segun in the build-up.

Gloucester held out with 14 men before a frantic final quarter that saw seven more tries.

Willis went over from a maul before Hathaway got his first three minutes later from Blake's grubber-kick.

Hartley immediately replied under the posts before Cinti went over in the corner with 14 minutes to go.

There was still time for three more Gloucester tries as Hathaway scored two in two minutes to push Parton's record close and Blake raced over in the final moments.

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:

"He did great, Tom, and he's been patiently waiting for an opportunity and certainly took that opportunity today, so there were some very good individual performances, some very good individual moments and some good team stuff.

"But we want to be a team who are better for longer during the 80 minutes and we've got to be honest about how we assess that performance.

"We made a number of really poor decisions in the last 10 minutes of the game which weren't done for what the situation needed.

"You want to be part of a team who are making decisions for the right reasons all the time and are not affected by the scoreboard.

"That's what the best players do and in the last 10 minutes we were guilty of not doing that."

Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucester:

"We were massive underdogs today, we obviously brought a lot of young players and there were some Premiership debuts out there today.

"I think the odds were massively against the boys, we just asked for character, work rate, throw yourself in and see what you can do, and I think we learned some valuable lessons early on.

"The boys were in a pretty deep hole at one point and I think the way they fought, scored four tries here - any team would be happy scoring four tries here - the fight and commitment to stay in the game was good.

"It wasn't perfect, it wasn't always pretty, but they stuck in the fight and I'm actually really proud of those young lads."

Saracens: Goode; Segun, Cinti, Tompkins, Parton; Farrell (capt), Davies; Mako Vunipola, Dan, Riccioni, Itoje, McFarland, Gonzalez, Earl, Willis

Replacements: George, Mawi, Hoskins, Isiekwe, B Vunipola, Simpson, Manu Vunipola, Hartley

Gloucester: Barton; Hathaway, Hillman-Cooper, Atkinson, Morris; Atkinson, Englefield; Vivas, Socino, Balmain, Clark, Thomas, Tuisue, Ludlow (capt), Clement

Replacements: Blake, Elrington, Knight, Eite, Nixon, Chapman, Reeves, Jones

Sin-bin: Tuisue (42)

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe

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