Saracens' title hopes took a battering when they slumped to defeat at Vicarage Road.

They also suffered the blow of having England scrum-half Kyran Bracken being taken off with a facial injury three minutes into his comeback match after a long lay-off with a back injury.

A subsequent x-ray showed no sign of a fractured cheekbone but Bracken will be out of action for three weeks after suffering concussion.

London Scottish conceded the first try but outfought their opponents for a deserved victory.

They trailed 7-3 at the interval but scored three converted tries after the break to take the points.

The victory failed to improve their position near the bottom of the table but Saracens dropped one place to fourth.

Wasps 23-9 Gloucester

Wasps bagged 17 points in the final few minutes to snatch a dramatic victory from Gloucester.

The Cherry and Whites have now lost on their last nine visits to Wasps and have won just once in six matches on their travels this season.

Neither side dominated the ill-tempered early exchanges, during which both sides were reduced to 14 men as Wasps' Paul Volley and Gloucester's Kingsley Jones were sin-binned for fighting after just six minutes.

Gloucester's fortunes appeared to be improving when they led 9-6 just after the break.

But Wasps' superb handling skills and speed on the break paid dividends forcing Gloucester to concede the first of three penalties converted by Kenny Logan.

With the home side firmly in control Paul Sampson ran on to Alex King's free-kick to ground a try before Andy Le Chevalier went over to seal it.

Newcastle 29-13 West Hartlepool

Two tries in the final minutes took champions Newcastle to victory after their bottom-of-the-table visitors had led by three tries.

In high winds, the visitors led through Steve Vile's penalty but Newcastle took the lead through Jonny Wilkinson's try.

The lead repeatedly changed hands before the sin-binning of West player-coach Mike Brewer gave the Falcons an advantage that they were able to exploit.

Va'aiga Tuigmala and scrum-half Hall Charlton, making his debut, got the late tries. The win lifts Newcastle to fifth place.

Harlequins 17-15 Sale

Harlequins moved to sixth in the table with a narrow but unconvincing victory.

They scored one try to Sale's two, and it was four penalties from John Schuster which proved decisive.

Three kicks gave Quins a 9-3 half-time lead, and Jamie Williams' solo try seemed to have wrapped the game up.