Danny Cipriani’s hopes of pressing his World Cup claim in a major Twickenham final were brutally ended by Saracens.
English club rugby’s player of the season, as voted by both the Premiership and his fellow pros, barely got a look-in as the kings of Europe blew them away in the London sunshine.
A year after his Wasps team had been trounced 57-33 by Saracens one game from Twickenham, Cipriani’s Gloucester suffered an equally painful fate.
Hopes that their first Premiership semi-final since 2011 would provide a springboard for the gifted fly-half to get to Japan were dashed by half-time in front of watching England coach Eddie Jones.
Instead it is the seemingly unstoppable Saracens who, for a fifth time in six years, return to Headquarters where they will face Exeter, 42-12 winners over Northampton, for the third time in four finals.
“If we played better we probably could have helped Danny, but we made some silly defensive errors,” Gloucester boss Johan Ackerman admitted. “It will be tough if he is judged by the one game, you have to look at the whole season.
“I do believe Danny can do it, that he can make a difference. If Owen Farrell is going to be the starter do you want George Ford on the bench to cover more or go with Cipriani and push Farrell to 12?
“For me, Danny can come off the bench and make a huge difference.”
When Saracens’ defence was cut open inside three minutes for Ben Morgan to score a fine try, it briefly seemed Cipriani’s luck could be in.
But Liam Williams won the restart, Farrell put the ball on a plate for Sean Maitland to score and, by the time Gloucester next troubled the scorers, almost an hour later, they were buried under 44 points.
Sarries did not have everything their own way. Farrell missed five kicks at goal and captain Brad Barritt damaged his right hamstring badly enough to almost certainly rule him out of next Saturday’s final.
But it is a measure of how good they are that Farrell’s off-day from the tee passed unnoticed - and Barritt’s departure ended up hurting Gloucester more.
Onto the pitch ran Nick Tompkins and after spending a few minutes before half-time getting his bearings, the young centre helped himself to a third quarter hat-trick.
"We just try get to a point that nothing will set us back, nothing will upset our energy - good or bad,” said the 24-year-old. “We found our rhythm in the later stages and didn’t let anything dictate how we felt."
Gloucester had no answer to Saracens’ work in the air, where Williams, Maitland and Alex Lozowski bossed the skies brilliantly.
The two wingers were rewarded with tries and Ben Spencer completed the scoring to cap his man of the match display.
But team boss Mark McCall was still not satisfied. "If we want to get the result we want next week we need to be better," he said. "The players understand that."
SARACENS - Tries: Maitland, Spencer, Williams, Tompkins 3. Cons: Farrell 4. Pens: Farrell 2.
GLOUCESTER - Tries: Morgan, Dreyer, Ludlow. Cons: Twelvetrees 2.
