• Northampton 33-26 Gloucester• Cobus Reinach’s two tries decisive for SaintsNorthampton returned to the top of the table after squeezing out Gloucester in an indulgent festive romp. The visitors scored four tries to three, with their 18-year old wing Louis Rees-Zammit securing a hat-trick in his third Premiership start ahead of a likely Six Nations call-up by Wales.
Rees-Zammit will qualify for
England on residency later this year through his education at Hartpury College In Gloucestershire, but the nephew of the former Cardiff, Pontypool and Wales B full-back Paul Rees is only interested in representing the country he was born and brought up in. He followed his two tries against Worcester last week with three more on an afternoon when Gloucester’s schemer was Mark Atkinson rather than Danny Cipriani.