Sam Goatley added another three tries to the four he scored against Devon a couple of weeks ago as Gloucestershire ended their county rugby championship campaign with a thumping 56-12 win over Surrey at Lydney.

Defeat at Hertfordshire the previous week had ended Gloucestershire’s hopes of booking a place in the end-of-month showpiece final at Twickenham but there was some consolation as they ran in eight tries in a super show on Saturday.

They had to wait half-an-hour for their first touchdown but when it came it was worth waiting for. Again, it was Cinderford centre Goatley who provided the cutting edge, hitting a superb line from the pass by Tom Webb to glide through the Surrey defence.

Five minutes later, Goatley struck again. It was a somewhat less cultured line than his first but equally effective. The inside-centre crashed his way through three poor tackles to score under the posts. James Moffatt, who was excellent with the boot throughout, added two more to give Gloucestershire an 18-5 half-time advantage.

Gloucestershire flew out of the blocks in the second half with three tries in the opening 10 minutes.

Old Pats winger James Gahan put his name on the scoresheet with a somewhat fortunate try. Good driving play through the middle of the field created an overlap out wide for the county.

Webb threw a long pass to Gahan that looked to have killed the attack but the winger was able to juggle the ball over the heads of the Surrey defence, re-gather and dot down. The conversion from Moffatt saw Gloucestershire’s lead extend to 25-5.

From that point on the floodgates opened and Newent’s Brett Gardner found himself on the end of a flowing move from inside their own half to extend the county’s lead.

Goatley sealed his hat-trick after 50 minutes after he broke the defensive line and raced in from the halfway line. In the act of scoring the centre injured himself and limped off to a standing ovation from the Regentsholme crowd with Gloucestershire leading 37-5.

Cinderford’s Harrison Yorke added Gloucestershire’s sixth after superbly gathering a high ball. The box kick by Eamon Rees was taken on the run by Yorke and he raced in to score in the corner.

Rees added a try of his own late on from the base of the scrum. The scrum-half picked up the ball and spun out of some soft tackling to fall over the line, extending Gloucester's lead to 49-5.

It was left to Birmingham Moseley's Harry Hone to rattle up the half century. A break from Reuben Goatley took Gloucestershire close to the line before he offloaded to Hone who dashed in under the posts. Moffatt added the extras to complete the Gloucestershire scoring.

Gloucestershire: 15. James Moffatt, 14. Brett Gardner, 13. Reuben Goatley, 12. Sam Goatley, 11. James Gahan, 10. Tom Webb, 9. Danny Pointon; 1. Joe Wrafter, 2. Dean Brooker, 3. James Elliot, 4. Harry Hone, 5. Jack Robson, 6. Tyler Jerrum, 7. Dan Brodey, 8. Ross Webb. Reps: 16. Mikey Addis, 17. Alex Gibson, 18. George Angell, 19. Lewis Beer, 20. James Dean 21. Harrison Yorke, 22. Eamon Rees.