Gloucester will go into the new millennium as Premiership One leaders if they win at Bedford on Wednesday, but there were times yesterday when they looked more like relegation contenders than prospective champions.

They trailed 15-6 after 36 minutes, but they then engulfed London Irish. It was rarely pretty and Gloucester never hit the creative heights scaled by the visitors in the first 30 minutes when Stephen Bachop controlled the game from out-half.

Gloucester were tactically indecisive early on and Bachop took advantage. With his forwards retaining possession, tries by Conor O'Shea, following a long pass from Robert Todd, and Ben Whetstone were the least the visitors deserved.

Yet as slick as they were in attack, London Irish conceded penalties with alarming regularity.

The turning point came shortly before half-time. Gloucester drove a line-out after a penalty and number eight Ed Pearce emerged from a pile of bodies for the first of four tries in 19 minutes, the others scored by Simon Mannix, Steve Ojomoh and the centre Terry Fanolua.

Tries by Kingsley Jones and Chris Catling in the final 20 minutes confirmed Gloucester's by now rampant superiority.

Scorers: Gloucester: Tries: Pearce, Mannix, Ojomoh, Fanolua, K Jones, Catling. Conversions: Mannix 2. Penalties: Mannix 2. London Irish: Tries: O'Shea, Whetstone. Conversion: Cunningham. Penalty: Cunningham.

Gloucester: Hayward; Catling, Fanolua, Yates, Beim (Johnson, 75min); Mannix (Ewens, 80), Moncrieff; Woodman (Powles, 75), Fortey, Deacon (Vickery, 48), Fidler, I Jones (Eustace, 77), Ojomoh, K Jones (capt; Djoudi, 71), Pearce.

London Irish: O'Shea (capt); Whetstone (Horak, 75), Bishop, Todd, Cunningham; Bachop, S Hatley (Campbell, 66); N Hatley, Kirke (Stankovich, 48), Halford (Fullman, h-t), Gabey, Harvey, Mower (Gallacher, 66), Dawson, Strudwick.

Referee: S Lander (Liverpool).