Not to be outdone, Gloucester wing Santiago Carreras was the beneficiary of a long pass from Hastings to go over in the corner.

When Hastings kicked a penalty and Lewis Ludlow went over, the visitors began to pull away. A try from Santiago Carreras shortly after half-time courtesy of a lovely miss-pass from Connon temporarily stemmed the flow, but the dam broke when Rees-Zammit appeared. 

Thornley’s try and the Welshman’s score put the West Countrymen clear, although a try at the death by replacement front row Charlie Maddison made it closer on the scoreboard than it was on the pitch. 

“We’ve dealt with lots of adversity and lots of bits and pieces last year and the boys stood strong, and we stood strong to what we believed would be successful in the long run, and we’re starting to see bits of that now,” Gloucester head coach George Skivington added.

Match details

Scoring sequence: 3-0 Connon pen; 3-5 Ackermann try; 8-5 Radwan try; 8-10 S Carreras try; 8-12 Hastings con; 8-15 Hastings pen; 8-20 Ludlow try; 13-20 M Carreras try; 15-20 Connon con; 15-25 Thornley try; 30-15 Rees-Zammit try; 15-32 Evans con; 20-32 Maddison try; 22-32 Haydon-Wood con.

Newcastle Falcons: M Brown; A Radwan, M Orlando, P Lucock, M Carreras (T Penny, 57); B Connon (W Haydon-Wood, 62), S Stuart (C Nordli-Kelemeti, 66); A Brocklebank (C Cade, 76), G McGuigan (C Maddison, 76), M Tampin (P Brantingham, 76), G Peterson, S Robinson, P Van der Walt (G Graham, 66), W Welch (captain (M Wilson, 66), C Chick.

Gloucester: L Evans; S Carreras (L Rees-Zammit, 52), C Harris, B Twelvetrees, O Thorley; A Hastings (S Varney, 50), C Chapman; V Rapava-Ruskin, J Singleton, F Balmain (K Gotovtsev, 77), E Slater (A Davidson, 40), F Clarke, J Reid, L Ludlow (captain), R Ackermann.

Referee: J Makepeace

Attendance: 4,562