MISTAKES COST MATCHES.
It’s an old cliché but once again mistakes cost Gloucester dear at Kingsholm where Leicester won for the second time this season when fly-half Andy Goode’s injury-time drop-goal took the Tigers to Twickenham to defend their Guinness Premiership title.
It wasn’t just the mistakes that cost Gloucester dear but also a failure to score a try when the Tigers had men in the sin-bin.
The Cherry and Whites’ poor performance lacked cohesion with too many wrong options, isolated individual efforts, more unprofitable kicking out of hand and was a good deal short of that which accounted for Wasps and Bath in recent weeks.
The late withdrawal of Mike Tindall with the loss of his know-how was a major blow and for all the pre-match talk of maturity, quite simply Gloucester’s game management was not good enough on the day to account for a Leicester side that rode their luck to take the spoils.
Inconsistency has been Gloucester’s downfall too often this season and once again the disappointment hurts.
Not so much the fact that we lost but the manner by which we lost to a decidedly average Leicester side. A side that Gloucester could have and should have beaten Leicester, failed on the day.
Gloucester got what they earned.Nothing.
Leicester conceded a raft of first-half penalties but all the home side had to show for all their huffing and puffing was four penalty kicks from birthday-boy Ryan Lamb.
Tigers even lost two players to the sin-bin, Jordan Crane and Harry Ellis but kicks at goal were spurned. When the resultant Gloucester line out mis-fired and the chance was lost, similarly when a scrum was called for, that option came to nothing.
All to often Gloucester reverted to type, as once again they kicked too much ball away, seeming reluctant to try and build momentum, trying speculative long passes that were poorly directed or gave the recipient absolutely no room to move and created very little in attack.
An interval lead of 12-3 was just enough to give Gloucester fans the hope that things would improve in the second period but after Goode and then Lamb slotted penalties it was the resilient visitors who struck their first major blow when Alesana Tuiliagi ploughed through the light-weight tacklers to score in the corner. Goode’s fine conversion narrowed the gap to 15-13.
James Simpson-Daniel scored an excellent try thanks in part to Akupusi Qera take the score to 22-13 but Gloucester could not establish a definite two score difference as they conceded penalties at regular intervals.
Gloucester were unable to stamp any authority on the game in an uncomfortable suicidal second half and continued to leak penalties whilst a sickening bout of the kicking disease helped keep the visitors in the game.
The unpredictable Ryan Lamb’s game became decidedly dis-jointed and when Geordan Murphy broke away from a loose kick ahead, Leicester drove to the Gloucester line. Rory Lawson retrieved possession but a wretched attempted clearance kick from Lamb went astray. Gloucester’s defence went to pieces as Balshaw and Walker contrived to lose the ball for a grateful Aaron Mauger to snap up the gift try under the posts. Goode’s conversion was a formality and put the visitors in right back in contention. 22-20.
Gloucester’s pack won a line-out but although Ryan Lamb crossed, the score was dis-allowed for a forward pass. Going into the final ten minutes play began to get frantic and another penalty offence allowed Goode to slot the kick to put the never-say-die Tigers in front for the first time.22-23.
Gloucester’s pack won possession to set up Willie Walker for a drop goal and his kick went over off the post to edge the hosts back in front. 25.23.
With only four minutes to go Gloucester committed the cardinal sin when from the re-start they failed to secure possession to close the game down. Leicester drove forward and when Goode received the ball there was never any doubt of the outcome as he coolly dropped the match-winning goal with just two minutes remaining.
It was all over for Gloucester as Tigers’ resolve and experience saw them on their way to Twickenham again. Bitterly disappointing for the Cherry and Whites with another poor performance ending in the narrowest of defeats just when it mattered.
Some improvement this season for Gloucester but still not good enough, as once again there is no silver-ware to show for it.
At least this disappointingly poor showing was at Kingsholm and we are spared the indignity of another Twickenham defeat and enduring the non-stop Dallaglio media road-show. Shame really.
Good luck to Leicester, they deserve their chance.
T.H. 19/5/2008