Redshaw hat-trick fires Gloucester into Champions Cup, ending Harlequins' hopes

Ben Redshaw scored a hat-trick of tries as Gloucester defeated Newcastle Red Bulls 54-21 at Kingsholm to secure eighth place in the Premiership table and pip Harlequins to the final Champions Cup qualification spot.

Gloucester made hard work of the opening quarter, trailing 14-7 before a four-try blitz in 11 minutes turned the contest decisively in their favour. Newcastle, who had won only two of their 18 league fixtures this season, could not recover from that damaging spell.

Head coach George Skivington was full of praise for Redshaw, who had missed most of the season through injury before returning over the final three rounds. “Ben was excellent today and has grown nicely in the last three games after missing most of the season with an injury,” Skivington said. “He still has a long way to go but he’s an excellent talent which hopefully will continue to develop.”

Skivington acknowledged his side were not at their sharpest but was satisfied with how the campaign closed. “We set out to win the last three games at Kingsholm and we’ve achieved this,” he said. “We had to win today as it’s important we have the opportunity to play against the best teams. The opening period was still edgy — there was a lot of emotion around the place in the week with players leaving. Newcastle were dogged, especially in the set-piece, but had our line-out functioned better we may have put the game to bed earlier. Ultimately we got the job done and that’s what mattered.”

The result brought the curtain down on Stephen Jones’ tenure as Newcastle head coach. Jones, whose side conceded 54 points, paid tribute to a squad he said had remained tight throughout a difficult season. “Twenty-six players will be moving on from the club but throughout they have been a tight group who have been honest with each other,” he said.

Jones also acknowledged the 11-minute collapse as the decisive moment. “We switched off badly in that period and that really cost us,” he said. “We showed some really good fight in the second half and some of the players had to really dig deep to go the whole 80 as they were running on empty.”

In a notable aside, Jones pointed to Redshaw — a former Newcastle academy product — as an example of the talent the club must work harder to retain. “Looking ahead we have to ensure that we don’t lose players who come through our academy like Ben Redshaw as we’ve done in the past,” he said.