It was an occasion to remember as Gloucester legend, James Simpson-Daniel, held his testimonial match against Russia.

The game was a warm up for both sides with Russia preparing for the World Cup which kicks off in just a few weeks. Gloucester looked more focused after last weeks disappointing loss to London Welsh and announced a stronger line up to take on the Russians.

Gareth Evans got the ball rolling for Gloucester in his first ever start for the club. He powered through on the 4 minute mark and Taylor managed the conversion well.

8 minutes later Sinbad saw space and went for it. He offloaded to oncoming Morgan who went over for Gloucester’s second. Taylor couldn’t convert this time but Gloucester still led by 12 points to 0.

May was next to feature on the Gloucester score sheet as he blitzed his way through the entire Russian backline and dived over in style, Taylor converted to extend Gloucester’s ever-growing lead.

With almost half an hour played, Dawidiuk broke away to score once more for Gloucester. Taylor converted. May scored his second with 7 minutes remaining of the half. Taylor converted once more and Gloucester led 33-0 going into the break.

Tim Taylor, who was managing the kicking duties well, scored a try of his own next which he also converted. Gloucester held a lead of 40 points to 0.

Gloucester made changes with Burns and young Tom Savage coming onto the field. Following this a try came from Vainikolo who had made a few unforced errors early on. Burns converted extending Gloucester’s lead to 47-0.

However, Russia finally got their scoreboard rolling as Khrokin went over to score. Kyluchnikov managed the tough conversion and the gap was narrowed to 47-7, but Gloucester looked the obvious winners.

Sharples replaced May and both received loud applause, this followed a good attack from May from an interception that eventually came to nothing after some good play between forwards and backs.

Botvinnikov was the receiver of the only yellow card and it was given with just five minutes remaining. The Russian forward took out Olly Morgan off the ball after a clearance kick.

The closing minutes saw James Simpson-Daniel leave the field to loud applause and the fans stood to congratulate Sinbad on a successful 47-7 win against Russia in his testimonial.