WITH so many England youngsters on display, it was Ryan Lamb, one of Gloucester’s uncapped young guns, who stole the show last night, darting over for the try that took his side to the top of the Guinness Premiership and upstaged Jonny Wilkinson opposite him in the No 10 shirt.

The lead changed hands five times in all, and Newcastle were well worth their bonus point, but it was Lamb and James Forrester who saw that Gloucester completed the season unbeaten at Kingsholm.

It was an emotional evening, with Gloucester playing their last game of the season at the ground before the builders move in to start work on a new grandstand. Besides bidding farewell to the stand, the Kingsholm faithful said their farewells to Jake Boer, Peter Richards and Adam Eustace.

Boer, Gloucester’s South African flanker, is returning home at the end of the season to pursue outside business interests, while Richards will join London Irish next season and Eustace has signed for Llanelli Scarlets. Richards has been off the booze in a bid to boost his England prospects, and could be the only one of the trio not nursing a hangover this morning.

Newcastle’s headaches began yesterday morning, when they woke at their Gloucester hotel to find that the kitbag containing all 30 pairs of the team’s shorts had been stolen. It hardly ranked alongside Pickles the dog sniffing out the Jules Rimet trophy in 1966, but the Falcons were still grateful to the local schoolboy who discovered them in his back garden — and his dad who drove them to the ground in time to spare the players’ blushes.

Suitably atired, the Falcons got off to a flying start when Jamie Noon scored in the 10th minute, finishing off a fine movement started by Wilkinson. All the Newcastle backs handled superbly, and it was Wilkinson’s slick pass that created the gap for Matt Burke to accelerate through and give the scoring pass to Noon. They may love him in an England shirt, but oh how the Shed cheered as Jonny’s conversion attempt drifted wide.

Wilkinson missed a long-range penalty and Willie Walker missed two shots at goal for Gloucester before the home team finally got off the mark in the 37th minute. It was Lamb who stretched the visitors’ defence, and Forrester left Walker a simple conversion.

Gloucester’s lead was short-lived, however, and the sloppy defending that allowed Noon to claim his second touchdown in first-half injury time would not have pleased Dean Ryan, the Cherry and Whites director of rugby who is still serving a touchline ban. Toby Flood, wearing 11 but playing at inside-centre, gave a neat pass to Noon 15 metres from the posts; there was plenty of traffic ahead of him, but the outside-centre skipped through some lame tackles for Wilkinson to convert.

Wilkinson began the second half by banging over his first penalty to stretch Newcastle’s lead to 15-7 only to see Gloucester rack up 10 points that turned the game. Walker landed his first penalty, then converted a try by Boer. Forrester’s pace breached the defence and the No 8 handed the perfect leaving present to his back-row mucker.

There were more donkey chants for Wilkinson when he missed a drop-goal attempt, but his left boot was back in business with a penalty in the 67th minute to edge his side back in front when Gloucester’s back-line strayed offside.

Lamb’s try, converted by Walker, clinched it for Gloucester in the 71st minute, but they had to hang on at the finish after Italian prop Carlos Nieto was yellow-carded.

Star man: Ryan Lamb(Gloucester)

Gloucester:W Walker; J Bailey, M Tindall (M Foster 75min), A Allen, J Simpson-Daniel; R Lamb, P Richards (R Lawson 58min); N Wood, M Davies, C Nieto, W James, M Bortolami, J Boer (capt), J Forrester (J Forster 79min), A Hazell.

Newcastle:M Burke (capt); T May, M Tait, J Noon, T Flood; J Wilkinson, J Grindal (L Dickson 68min); J McDonnell, M Thompson (A Long 64min), M Ward (J Golding 71min), M Sorenson, J Oakes (A Perry 71min), G Parling, B Wilson, B Woods.

Yellow card: Gloucester:Nieto (78min)