Gloucester ultimately paid the price for a dozen turn-overs – and some wayward goalkicking - even though they fought their way back into the game with second-half scores from Bradley Davies and Adam Eustace.

It was Gloucester who started the stronger, putting pressure on Saracens at the lineout and forcing their way downfield for Duncan McRae to kick them into a 6-0 lead inside the first five minutes.

McRae, though, missed three similar shots at goal in the first half and his team paid for their mistakes when Saracens punished two turnovers with tries.

They edged in front when they moved the ball wide when Thomas Castaignede’s floated pass was plucked out of the air by Vyvyan, who forced his through the last tackler to the line.

Glen Jackson converted, added a penalty in the 24th minute and then watched in admiration as Johnston beat half-a-dozen players on his 32nd minute run to the line.

Gloucester were attacking when wing James Bailey knocked on, and Johnston – picked ahead of Richard Haughton on the wing – recovered the ball, cut inside then beat and dummied his way past some static defenders to the line.

Jackson’s conversion put Saracens 17-6 clear at the break with Gloucester continually giving the ball away in the tackle and unable to find their way through a brick wall defence superbly marshalled by Richard Hill.

But Saracens couldn’t add to their score even though  they dominated the opening stages of the second half and Gloucester played their way back into the game.

They decided to go over the top with McRae’s cross-kick allowing full-back Brad Davies to score in the corner in the 54th minute. And Davies was involved again five minutes later when he linked with Terry Fanolua to give Eustace a run to the line with TMO Geoff Warren ruling the ball had been grounded.

Missed conversions, though, from McRae and then Davies, still left them trailing by a point and Saracens reorganized going into the last 10 minutes with Castaignede a  growing threat as playmaker and strike runner.

He stretched the play left, where Richard Haughton threatened, then quickly right to give Vaikona the chance to burst inside prop Gary Powell and evade Andy Gomarsall’s covering dive.

Gloucester: Brad Davies, Seti Kiole (Terry Fanolua 41), James Simpson-Daniel, James Forrester, James Bailey (Mark Foster 49), Duncan McRae, Andy Gomarsall, Nicholas Wood (Terry Sigley 72), Mefin Davies (Olivier Azam 75), Gary Powell, Adam Eustace, Alex Brown, Peter Buxton, Luke Narraway, Adam Balding.

Replacements (not used): Mark Cornwell, James Merriman, Alex Page.

Saracens: Thomas Castaignede, Ben Johnston (Richard Haughton 59), Kevin Sorrell, Dan Harris (Mark Bartholomeusz 61), Tevita Vaikona, Glen Jackson, Moses Raulini (Kyran Bracken 56), Nick Lloyd (Visagie 67), Raphael Ibanez (Matthew Cairns 55), Cobus Visagie (Kevin Yates 55), Iain Fullarton (Kris Chesney 70), Simon Raiwalui (Kris Chesney 49-59), Ben Skirving, Richard Hill (Taine Randell 60), Hugh Vyvyan.

Referee: Tony Spreadbury.