Leicester 56 – 26 Bristol

Chris Ashton scored a hat-trick and set a new record for Premiership tries as leaders Leicester Tigers beat Bristol Bears well; Gloucester scored 10 tries against derby rivals Bath in a demolition; Max Malins scored four tries as Saracens won comfortably at Worcester Warriors

Chris Ashton scored a hat-trick for Leicester vs Bristol to become the Premiership’s top try scorer of all time

Recap Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership action as Leicester crushed Bristol with Chris Ashton breaking a record, Gloucester mauled Bath, and Saracens were too strong for Worcester…

Leicester Tigers 56-26 Bristol Bears

Chris Ashton ran in a hat-trick to become the Gallagher Premiership’s record try scorer as leaders Leicester handsomely beat Bristol 56-26 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

The former England winger surpassed Tom Varndell as the top flight’s most prolific marksman and all three of his scores came inside the first 27 minutes to set up what was a mauling.

Leicester scored eight tries in total on what was a comfortable afternoon where they secured a home semi-final in the play-offs, ahead of next week’s mouth-watering Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Leinster.

Just before kick-off, there was a standing ovation for former England hooker Tom Youngs, who had announced his retirement earlier in the week, when he was presented on the pitch.

Gloucester 64-0 Bath

Gloucester romped to their biggest Premiership victory with a 64-0 demolition of hapless rivals Bath to move within a point of the play-off positions and arrest a mini slump.

The performance of Sam Underhill was perhaps the only positive for Bath, whose final match of the season at Worcester will probably determine who suffers the indignity of finishing at the bottom of the table.

Gloucester had secured the try bonus point they needed before half-time. Well though they played, they faced opponents who were passive in defence, shovelled slow ball predictably, struggled in the line-out and showed why they are the most undisciplined team in the Premiership.

They lost two players to the sin bin in the first 20 minutes. Prop Valeriy Morozov was penalised for a high tackle on Santiago Carreras after the full-back had come to ground having fielded a high kick.

Morozov had just returned to the field when centre Max Clark, who had earlier had a try ruled out because Underhill picked up the ball without getting back to his feet after flooring Mark Atkinson, was given 10 minutes off for tripping scrum-half Charlie Chapman.

Worcester Warriors 16-38 Saracens

Four tries from Saracens’ full-back Matt Malins ensured that his side took a huge step to securing a home tie in the Premiership play-offs, winning 38-16 at Worcester.

With only two games of the regular season remaining, Saracens only need three points from fixtures against Northampton and Gloucester to be assured of that crucial home advantage in the semi-finals

They only needed to play in third gear at Sixways to record a convincing win over a spirited but limited Warriors team, who could only manage three penalties from the boot of Fin Smith and a late try from Tom Howe, which Billy Searle converted.

Rotimi Segun and Ben Earl also crossed for Saracens, with Owen Farrell converting three and Manu Vunipola one.