SARACENS' unbeaten start to the season came to an abrupt end on Saturday when they were handed a 30-7 defeat by Gloucester at Kingsholm.

The result extended the Men in Black's miserable record at the home of the Cherry & Whites, where Sarries have never won a competitive match, to 12 straight defeats and gave head coach Rod Kafer plenty to ponder ahead of the local derby with NEC Harlequins at Vicarage Road on Sunday.

Little went right for the visitors on Saturday. England centre Ben Johnston pulled out prior to kick-off with a stomach injury, Thomas Castaignède only lasted 45 minutes before he was replaced, the French star and Nathan McAvoy both missed gilt-edged chances in the space of 14 first half minutes, while a luckless afternoon was compounded when Sarries were forced to play half of the second period with only 14 men.

Gloucester, however, were good value for a victory that extends their winning sequence at Kingsholm to an impressive 32 matches. After Henry Paul and Andy Goode had both missed a penalty in the opening seven minutes, Paul found his range on 12 minutes after Sarries had been caught offside.

The first try of the afternoon arrived on 22 minutes when Gloucester's precocious full-back Jon Goodridge finished off a move orchestrated by some impressive handling by the forwards down the left. Paul added the conversion to put the home side in early control at 10-0.

Sarries, though, had their chances but their failure to take them cost them dear. The most glaring arrived almost immediately from the restart. A sweeping move from right to left, involving Paul Bailey, Kevin Sorrell and Castaignède, found Nathan McAvoy on the left wing seemingly with the simplest of finishes, but the former Bradford Bulls centre, under pressure from Andy Hazell, amazingly dropped the ball when diving for the line.

Sarries made a mess of a promising five-metre line-out minutes later and then when Richard Haughton was in full cry on another of his sparkling breaks, Ryan Peacey needlessly obstructed Paul, who got off his feet to knock over the subsequent penalty.

To compound a error-strewn first-half in the attacking department for the Men in Black, Castaignède, perhaps wisely ignoring McAvoy on the overlap, spilled the ball when diving for the line, although it mitigation he was under considerable pressure from Jake Boer and Paul Johnston. Subsequently Sarries found themselves 13-0 down at the break when they could well have been 14-13 in front.

Sarries appeared to have rediscovered their cutting edge after the break as within four minutes of the restart they were back in the match after the excellent Taine Randell had been bundled over from a driving maul. Goode slotted the conversion to move Sarries to within six points.

But that was about as good as it got for the visitors. Castaignède trudged off minutes later and then watched from the sidelines as Gloucester wrapped up the points with three tries in the space of 18 minutes.

After Paul had danced his way through the middle, Goodridge darted between Bailey and McAvoy for his second on 52 minutes, James Simpson-Daniel just beat Haughton to the line two minutes later after Robert Todd has intercepted a predictable pass from Dan Kirton on his own 22, and then James Forrester rounded off a purple patch when he cut inside McAvoy and Goode to dive over to seal the bonus point.

Two of the tries came during the absence of Chesney, harshly sin-binned on 58 minutes for allegedly taking out Adam Eustace in the air from the restart, and he had only been back on the field for three minutes when Gloucester-born Ryan Peacey was yellow-carded for a similar offence on Goodridge.

However, Sarries refused to give up and Raiwalui was held up on the line after a concerted spell of pressure in the sixth minute of injury time, but it was not to be for the Men in Black who finished well beaten.