Northampton's only Aviva Premiership defeat of the season had come at Gloucester back in September, and then after a controversial late penalty to the home side. It was more routine this time for the Saints as they returned to the top of the table despite lacking their usual efficiency.
They took longer to secure their 11th consecutive Premiership victory than they should have, at times toying with opponents for whom the end of the season cannot come soon enough. Gloucester were game and were in touch with 15 minutes to go, but their inadequacies, especially at forward, had again been exposed.
Northampton are not opponents to present with offerings but the game was 80 seconds old when Gloucester made a hash of securing a kick by their outside-half, Freddie Burns, and Ken Pisi picked up the ball to run 50 metres unopposed to the line.
It set the theme for the first half. Parts of the pitch were blighted by cloying mud, but with the sun out and the breeze light, the conditions were perfect for handling. Both sides showed ambition but skill was something else: the Gloucester second-row Elliott Stooke had a start to forget, dropping passes and missing tackles, but the cost was not high.
Northampton would have had a second try on three minutes had Stephen Myler's chip bounced kindly for Jamie Elliott and they seemed about to increase their lead shortly after when Tom Stephenson left Henry Trinder and Stooke looking at each other as the centre ran in between them.
Trinder had just picked himself up when Kahn Fotuali'i, not for the last time, sent a pass that did not include the postcode. Trinder shrugged off his earlier embarrassment to set off for the line 80 minutes away: he looked in need of oxygen as he reached the home 22, but Northampton's wide men were nowhere near him and he was grateful for the slope as he neared the end.
Ben Foden made his return from injury 10 minutes into the second period, 14 weeks after suffering a knee injury. He replaced the hapless James Wilson who had entered into the slapstick of the afternoon by twice kicking the ball out on the full and misplacing passes.
Foden made an immediate impact, although Northampton's 13-10 interval lead was erased by Freddie Burns's second penalty. Northampton had been denied tries from chips over the line either side of half-time due to the speed of Gloucester's covering defence, but playing down the gradient after the break they took an inexorable grip on the game.
The Saints had a marked superiority up front and it was only mistakes as they tried to move the ball that prevented them securing victory before the 66th minute. Gloucester, who conceded a welter of penalties that culminated in the late yellow card shown to their second-row Will James who failed to roll away after making a try-saving tackle on Jamie Elliott, were reduced to a few snipes and were outclassed rather than outfought.
Calum Clark, who had conceded the penalty that had allowed Burns to level the scores, turned a penalty lineout into a try, reward for a commanding display by the back rower who dominated the lineout and breakdown.
The Saints started to put moves together and Stephenson, a 19-year old making his third league start for the home side, stepped out of two tackles after another lineout to take the game beyond Gloucester.
The replacement prop Alex Waller secured the bonus point six minutes from the end after James was trudging to the sin-bin, at the hear of a driving maul, and the leaders finished with a flourish when confusion in Gloucester's defence provided another replacement, Will Hooley, to score with his first touch of the ball.
