Gloucester overcome leaders

Two tries from full-back Ross Chisholm were not enough to help stuttering Harlequins as the Aviva Premiership leaders slumped to a 29-23 defeat at Gloucester.

Quins will be kicking themselves back down the motorway after they had Gloucester in trouble a few times in the second half but could not get the tries to recover an early setback.

Wing Charlie Sharples, full-back Jonny May and flanker Akapusi Qera grabbed Gloucester's tries, with fly-half Freddie Burns booting four penalties and a conversion.

Harlequins' other points came from fly-half Nick Evans' boot with three penalties and two conversions.

Two tries from Thomas Waldrom helped Leicester Tigers leapfrog Northampton into third place after a comfortable 42-15 home win over struggling Newcastle.

With Leicester wrapping up the four-try bonus point just two minutes into the second half, the result leaves Newcastle still six points adrift of London Wasps at the other end of the table.

Julian Salvi, Billy Twelvetrees, Horacio Agulla and Niall Morris also touched down for the Tigers, while Jon Golding and Richard Mayhew went over for the Falcons.

Bath completed a league double over West Country rivals Exeter in a 12-9 victory where all the points came through penalties at Sandy Park.

It was a typical derby clash with little between the teams but the outcome meant a fourth home defeat for the Chiefs in the league this season, and the Devon side have to look back to January 1978 for when they last beat Bath.

Tom Heathcote booted four penalties for the visitors with Ignacio Mieres replying with three for Chiefs.