Louis Rees-Zammit returns to inspire Gloucester to victory over Harlequins

Louis Rees-Zammit was in fine form as Gloucester climbed to third in the Gallagher Premiership by beating playoff rivals Harlequins 28-26 at Kingsholm.

The Wales wing’s first appearance since sustaining an ankle injury eight weeks ago was capped by him scoring Gloucester’s bonus-point try four minutes from time. He featured for more than 30 minutes in two spells off the replacements’ bench, emphatically proving his fitness before Wales’ Guinness Six Nations fixture with England next week.

Quins appeared to be on the way to a first league victory since early December through tries from the replacement hooker Sam Riley, No 8 Tom Lawday and wing Cadan Murley. Fly-half Tommy Allan kicked two conversions but Gloucester were not to be denied as wing Ollie Thorley, hooker Seb Blake and fly-half Santiago Carreras also scored tries, with Carreras adding four conversions.

A late Quins try from Matias Jurevicius that Allan converted at least ensured that Quins left the West Country with two bonus points through scoring four tries and finishing fewer than seven points behind their opponents.

Rees-Zammit featured among the replacements, while prop Val Rapava-Ruskin, who recently signed a new club contract, made his 100th Gloucester appearance. Quins scrum-half Danny Care clocked up a record 352nd appearance for the London club, overtaking former England teammate Mike Brown’s total, with four starting XV changes seeing starts for Murley, Jack Musk, James Chisholm and Luke Wallace.

Rees-Zammit made an early entry after Thorley went off following a collision with Murley, and Gloucester struck through a sixth-minute try. Chisholm was shown a yellow card by the referee, Luke Pearce, Gloucester kicked the resulting penalty to touch, and