Laporte’s greatest success may prove to have been getting everyone to speak with one voice All together now: “Allons enfants de la Patrie…”. Exciting times at Gloucester. Beaten only once at Kingsholm this season, by Leicester, they rattled up their third batch of maximum points here in a row, and were so far in front by half-time that Henry Paul was able to switch to stand-off for a useful work-out in the unfamiliar position after five matches at inside centre

Exciting times at Gloucester. But for a couple of narrow defeats on the road, the Cherry jerseys might have been top of the Premiership by now. Certainly, with Sale, London Irish and Newcastle still to travel west, the stated ambition of Philippe Saint-Andr?o qualify for the Heineken Cup ought to be comfortably within reach.Leeds were blown away by a burst of four tries in 20 first-half minutes, and an even more rapid-fire quartet after the interval. But even during the spells when the Tykes’ goal-line stood intact, their misfiring line-out and creaking scrum undermined the much-anticipated comeback of Steve Bachop to outside-half after an Achilles injury.Bachop was quick enough to snaffle a try with a charge-down of Paul’s first kick of the second half – shades of Iestyn Harris for Wales against Argentina, except that, for Paul, the afternoon’s embarrassment began and ended there.Ludovic Mercier had kicked Gloucester into a 6-3 lead when the try rush began after 19 minutes. Dmitri Yachvili’s grubber kick behind a scrum squirted obligingly into the path of Daren O’Leary, who hacked on and scored in the corner.

Paul collected the easiest try of his career in either code when Dan Scarbrough tossed an inside pass straight to him, then Mercier went over from Phil Vickery’s deft pass out of the tackle. When Paul clattered the ball from John O’Reilly’s hands, James Simpson-Daniel charged 80 metres for the bonus point, with 37 minutes gone.Braam van Straaten, Leeds’s newly-signed Springbok, will make his debut at home to Harlequins next weekend, presumably to bring organisation to a backline which at times in the second half was a shambles. Simpson-Daniel and Marcel Garvey, respectively 19 and 18 years old, were among the tries as Gloucester responded to Bachop’s score by piling on 26 unanswered points. And how the Shed roared when two extravagant dummied passes paved the way for Adam Eustace to score the eighth try.Leeds’s director of rugby, Phil Davies, admitted his young side, who have yet to win away from Headingley, were finding life tough. “We have a game plan,” Davies said, “but when we don’t stick to it, we get stuffed.”Gloucester: R Todd; D O’Leary (M Garvey, h-t), J Ewens, H Paul, J Simpson-Daniel; L Mercier (T Fanolua, 66), D Yachvili (A Gomarsall, 66); P Vickery (capt; A Deacon, 61), C Fortey, F Pucciariello (P Collazo, 59), M Cornwell, E Pearce, K Sewabu, J Paramore (J Forrester, h-t), J Boer (A Eustace, 59).Leeds: J Benson; D Scarbrough (G Mackay, 50), S Woof, T Davies, C Emmerson; S Bachop, J O’Reilly (C Kendra, 61); M Shelley (capt), M Holt (R Rawlinson, 50), G Kerr (K Fullman, 50), C Murphy (E Jones, 61), T Palmer, C Hogg, I Feaunati, C Mather.Referee: R Goodliffe (Yorkshire).. When Sale ran on to the pitch they were greeted with the theme tune from Coronation Street, presumably because the club is from up North.

The Rovers returned up the M1 last night for a pint and a hotpot following a gritty performance. Sale’s fourth away victory of the season moved them on to the tail of the leaders in the Zurich Premiership. Sale won, deservedly, by two goals and three penalties to a goal and three penalties and the scant consolation for Harlequins, who had been enjoying a good run at The Stoop, is that they received a bonus point for the second week running for not losing by more than seven points.The first half had a bit of everything including scores from Jason Robinson and Jason Leonard and a big punch-up, not amongst the players but a group of spectators near the Burger Emporium You might expect it at Barking but not at the Harlequins. Sale caught Quins cold at the opening of the first half and again at the opening of the second. It was enough.Sale and Robinson hit the ground running, kicking and stamping and had built a useful lead within 20 minutes. The crowd of 5,800 were not surprised to see a try from Robinson, a typically explosive effort, but nor did they expect a touchdown from Leonard, whose score was straight out of the front row catalogue.Charlie Hodgson, the Sale stand-off whose claim to fame is that he scored 44 points on his debut for England, against Romania at Twickenham, and was promptly dropped, kicked a penalty in the fourth minute and then showed he has a lot more to his repertoire than mere goalkicking.Quins, who generally had a good time of it at the line-out through Alex Codling and Bill Davison, paid a penalty for losing one on their throw in the 15th minute.