Gloucester 32 Ospreys 25
Gloucester kept their LV=Cup hopes alive with a bonus-point victory over the Ospreys – their fifth consecutive win in 2015.
The Cherry and Whites had to down the Welsh region to maintain the pressure on group leaders Saracens and they did so with relative ease at Kingsholm.
Aled Thomas, Ollie Thorley and Dan Thomas all crossed for tries as superiority at the set-piece proved decisive.
They face Harlequins at Castle Grim next Sunday and again must triumph to have any chance of reaching the semi-finals of the Anglo-Welsh competition.
Nick Walshe led Gloucester for the clash and he had the luxury of selecting five of his former Junior World Championship winners in Elliott Stooke, Ross Moriarty, Callum Braley, Billy Burns and Henry Purdy.
Jacob Rowan also made his first team return following knee surgery in September.
Meanwhile the Ospreys chose to rest Gloucester-bound Nicky Thomas following the announcement of his summer move earlier in the week.
But they did include Sam Davies, the son of former director of rugby Nigel who was in the Kingsholm crowd.
It took Gloucester just four minutes to open the scoring against the Welsh region. They twice kicked to the corner but failed to cross the whitewash with the driving lineout.
On the second attempt however, the ball was spread wide with an overlap to the right and Thomas hit the line at pace to scythe over.
Burns added the extras before the Ospreys battled back with no reward.
Meanwhile the Cherry and Whites continued to dominate the set-piece and after kicking to the corner again, with Tom Hicks winning the ball and Dan Thomas controlling at the back of the maul, referee Andrew Jackson went under the sticks for a penalty try.
Burns again converted and a long afternoon appeared in store for the visitors before Davies hit-back with a long-range penalty. They reduced the deficit further on the half hour mark as Darren Dawidiuk forced an offload which was intercepted by Ben John who raced home.
Davies converted the try out of nothing to bring the scores to 14-10 but the Ospreys were dealt a blow when Tom Habberfield was sin-binned following a string of persistent team offences. Burns punished the indiscretion with three points.
Davies struck the uprights minutes later but made amends with another difficult shot at goal to make it 17-13. However he went from hero to zero as he followed half-back partner Habberfield to the sin-bin after slapping the ball from the hands of Callum Braley.
Gloucester sniffed blood and went to the corner and following a sustained period of pressure and sweeping backs move, which included quick hands from Henry Purdy, Thomas released Thorley for an easy run in for his first senior try.
Burns missed the conversion but the try gave Gloucester a 22-13 lead at the interval.
The Cherry and Whites made the perfect start to the second-half as electric flanker Thomas charged down Richard Fussell's clearance and re-gathered to scamper over the whitewash and secure the bonus-point.
Burns slotted the conversion but the Swansea-based region refused to throw in the towel and battled back with two tries either side of a Aled Thomas penalty.
First Richard Fussell beat Steph Reynolds from close range, with Davies converting, then Tom Habberfield collected the fly-half's superb cross kick to crash over and set up a tense finale but Gloucester hung on.
Gloucester Rugby: Aled Thomas (capt); Steph Reynolds (Kai Little 65), Henry Purdy, Bill Meakes, Ollie Thorley; Billy Burns (Elliott Creed 62), Callum Braley; Dan Murphy (Yann Thomas 62), Darren Dawidiuk (Aleki Lutui ht), Sila Puafisi (Shaun Knight 52), Elliott Stooke (Joe Batley 47), Tom Hicks; Dan Thomas, Jacob Rowan, Ross Moriarty (Lewis Ludlow 45)
Tries– A Thomas, Penalty, O Thorley, D Thomas; Cons – B Burns (3); Pen – B Burns, A Thomas
Yellow card: A Lutui
Ospreys: Richard Fussell; Tom Grabham, Jonathan Spratt (J Thomas 66), Ben John, Dafydd Howells (Aisea Natoga 63); Sam Davies, Tom Habberfield (Martin Roberts 63); Gareth Thomas (Tom Sloane 59), Scott Otten, Dan Suter (Cai Griffiths 47), Rynier Bernardo (Rhodri Hughes 4), Tevita Cavubati, Olly Cracknell, Ieuan Jones, Morgan Allen (Ifereimi Boladau 33, Matthew Dwyer 47)).
Tries – B John, R Fussell, T Grabham; Cons – S Davies (2); Pen – S Davies (2);
Yellow card: T Habberfield, S Davies
Attendance: 12, 225
Referee: Andrew Jackson
