Gloucester moved back up to third in the Gallagher Premiership table with a 36-16 bonus-point victory over Worcester at Kingsholm.

Worcester were only one point adrift at the interval but the home pack dominated the second half for Gloucester to run out convincing winners.

Ollie Thorley scored two tries for Gloucester, with James Hanson, Jaco Visagie, Freddie Clarke and Charlie Sharples also crossing and Billy Twelvetrees adding three conversions.

Bryce Heem scored a try for Worcester with Duncan Weir kicking the conversion and three penalties.

Danny Cipriani missed a straightforward 40-metre penalty attempt early on to open the scoring but Worcester continued to infringe as they gave away five penalties in the opening 12 minutes.

The hosts capitalised when from a five-metre lineout, Hanson finished off a pre-planned move.

Worcester struggled to gain a foothold in the match and it came as no surprise when they fell further behind.

From another five-metre lineout, Owen Williams and Cipriani created the space for Jason Woodward to send Sharples flying over in the corner.

Cipriani’s third unsuccessful kick rebounded back of a post so Gloucester led 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.

After 22 minutes, Worcester were awarded their first penalty for Weir to make no mistake with his 45-metre kick before the fly-half kicked two more in quick succession to keep his side firmly in contention as they only trailed 10-9 at the interval.

Worcester suffered a half-time blow when skipper Gerrit Van Velze, was withdrawn with an injury and was replaced by Matt Cox.

Within three minutes of the restart, Ben Morgan was penalised for a deliberate knock-on but Chris Pennell was off-target with his long-range effort before Gloucester scored their third try.

A forward drive gave Williams the chance to put the dangerous Thorley into space and he side-stepped two defenders to crash over.  Twelvetrees took over the kicking from Cipriani but he fared no better as an easy conversion sailed wide.

Warriors suffered another injury setback when flanker Matti Williams was forced off with a leg injury as Gloucester restored their early control by scoring a bonus-point try.

Williams put the defence on the back foot with a telling burst before Willi Heinz sent Clarke over. Twelvetrees converted to ironic cheers before Pennell was yellow carded for taking out Sharples in the air.

Gloucester immediately capitalised when from another lineout drive, replacement Jaco Visagie picked up the hosts’ fifth.

It was now one-way traffic with Thorley skipping past two opponents for his second before Heem scored a consolation try for Worcester.