The Cherry and Whites were 14-0 up - but lost 28-14

Gloucester Rugby lost the chance to end the first block of season top of the PREM after Northampton's Saints 28-14 win against Gloucester on Saturday evening.

The Cherry and Whites, who had started the Gallagher PREM weekend sitting top of the table, had come flying out of the blocks, taking a 14-0 lead.

But title holders Northampton showed their champion class as they bounced back to bag a bonus-point success on home soil.

And they did so having suffered the blow of England's Alex Mitchell having to come off with just 21 minutes played, walking down the DPD Stadium at Franklin's Gardens tunnel to be replaced by 20-year-old Jonny Weimann.

That will be a concern for England boss Steve Borthwick ahead of the game against Australia at Allianz Stadium next weekend, but Northampton did not let their loss stop them from defeating in-form Gloucester.

Max Llewellyn had started the scoring for the visitors after they began the game on the front foot, with the centre picking up an offload close to the home line to dot down.

George Barton added the conversion and Gloucester continued to take the game to their hosts, who were dealt a big blow when Mitchell had to come off.

Gloucester lost Seb Blake to injury soon after, but Wales hooker Dewi Lake came on and the Cherry and Whites pushed forward again before George Hendy got back well to deny Will Joseph a score in the corner.

However, Joseph got his revenge soon after as he shrugged off Hendy to score under the posts.

Barton's conversion made it 14-0 and Northampton had it all to do as the away side had totally dominated the first half an hour.

The Saints needed a spark, and it was provided by their forwards as they twice went over on the back of big line-out drives, with Tom Pearson and Curtis Langdon crossing. Anthony Belleau converted both times to level the scores at the break.

Defences were on top at the start of the second period, but Northampton finally broke through again when a fine long pass from Belleau found Hendy for a try on the left.

The Saints had a spring in their step and they claimed the bonus-point try thanks to a clever finish from Rory Hutchinson, who used his footwork to evade a defender and score.

Belleau converted well and though Gloucester tried to salvage a losing bonus point, the Northampton defence, as it had for much of the night, stood tall to frustrate the away team.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington said: "In the second half, it was scrappy and I thought Saints' defence was outstanding to limit our opportunities.

"We weren't accurate enough, but give credit to Saints because they did a great job in that second half and we couldn't quite get a foothold in the game to use our bench the way we wanted to.

"We missed our opportunity with that momentum in the first half to really give ourselves a shot at winning today."