Gloucester 8 Leicester 20
BILLED
AS A TOP PREMERSHIP FEAST between two of England’s leading clubs the
fare served up was anything but, in a scrappy game that gave a new meaning
to the word mediocre.
A poor advert for Premiership rugby.
To say that Gloucester were a poor side
was no understatement.
Gormless Gloucester would be nearer the mark.
There was little or no teamwork — more a selection of individual efforts
typified by asequence of play with time running out that prised the
tight Tigers defence open, only for Carlos Nieto and Luke Narraway electing
to go for glory and the chances were missed.
Probably a Cherry and White score at this time could have sealed it
but the Tigers hit back with two tries to deservedly take the spoils
and deny the hosts even a point.
For all their huffing and puffing tactically inept Gloucester got what
they deserved, nothing.
It really was a catalogue of errors, or should that be a comedy of errors?
Gloucester were never able to put together any concerted passages of
play or achieve parity in any area.
Too much ball was turned over, kicks at goal were missed and as for
the set-piece, the scrum was an absolute shambles especially in the
first-half as the line-out faired no better.There was no grunt up front,
questions about the pack were brought firmly into focus, they were poor,
as were the back row plus the half backs.
Penalties were conceded time and time again with almost carefree abandon.
Don’t players ever learn?
Fortunately Leicester’s Toby Flood missed out with his penalty attempts.
The only saving grace for Gloucester was the play of full back Olly
Morgan who was outstanding throughout in attack and defence.
Flood kicked two early penalties for the visitors. Lamb missed two easy
kicks for the home side.
Andy Titterrell seemed to have scored under the posts but the video
official thought otherwise but for once Gloucester were able to provide
quick ball and a long pass from Simpson-Daniel and Olly Morgan was able
to get over in the corner for an unconverted try.
With only one point difference going into the second half there was
everything to play for as Ryan Lamb at last kicked a penalty to put
the Cherry and Whites in the lead for the first time.
Despite
their cynical gamesmanship, Leicester were never in complete
control but looked more convincing in their play.
Compared to Leicester, Gloucester seemed naïve, ponderous and slow in
thought and deed.
With twenty minutes to go Leicester got the telling try through the
impressive Geordan Murphy.
The conversion was a formality. Tigers ahead 13-8.
Anthony
Allen limped off to be put on a stretcher with what looked to be a serious
leg injury.
Dean Ryan rang the changes as Gloucester tried to rally but the frantic
efforts proved to be their un-doing when Toby Flood gratefully intercepted
a loose pass to score a converted try that wrapped it up for the Tigers.
The Shed may have chanted soccer style ‘Same old Leicester, always cheating’
but an average Tigers side had the last laugh with ‘Same old Leicester
always winning’. Yet another win for Leicester at Kingsholm, their third
this year.
This season’s opening Premiership fixtures are much more challenging
in the first month than previous years for Gloucester who need to show
a marked improvement in the coming weeks.
One defeat does not make for a poor season but the performance from
the Cherry and Whites fell a long way short of an acceptable professional
standard.
Some players are clearly not as good as they think they are, or are
thought to be.Victims of hype and spin.
Leicester
did not look as strong as in the past but Gloucester were truly awful.
P.S.
The announcement that the Ticket Office would be open for
half an hour after the game prompted the question - 'Can we get our
money back'! Gloucester were that poor.
T.H 8/9/08
Well, Gloucester will not be accused of peaking too early this season!
Apart from being mullered in the scrum, demolished in the line-out and turned over in the loose at will, that was not a bad performance if you also forgot about the missed penalty kicks, the countless penalties for the same offence for not staying on the feet at rucks and a couple of classic cases of white line fever when faster and better players were waiting for the final pass.
Ollie Morgan had an outstanding game and Sinbad looked dangerous on the rare occasion he saw the ball but all too often moves were stifled by the Gloucester tactic of bringing in the forwards at inside centre.
I'm not decrying the ploy of using forwards but if you do it should be pick and drive rather than crash and slow ball.
When poor play is mixed with tired tactics and missed opportunites you end up on the wrong end of a 20-8 result. Q.E.D..
J.G.P. 7/9/2008.
Basically we didn't do the basics.
Line Out: Poor. Throwing, catching, jumping, whatever, it wasn't good.
Scrum: Poor slow in put of ball led to penalties against us.
When we moved the ball and ran with it we looked good until Carlos Nieto and then Luke Narraway ran into the Leicester defence when it would have been easier to score.
But if you can't read the recipe you can't cook and if you don't get the ball from scrum or line out you can't play rugby.
The one positive the performance of Olly Morgan outstanding in everything he did, a bright light in a dark tunnel.
I can't wait for next week a day out in Bath, in that awful stand, with an awful view, deep joy.
Mike 7/9/08
When a thrower is having trouble, people say "Keep it simple, throw it to the front". But the opposition know Ollie's problem all too well, so they simply get in front of the number two jumper.
Which leads us to the question, "What does Carl Hogg do?".
Scrum going backwards, lineout hopeless, no dynamism from the tight and forwards seemingly unable to stay on their feet.
Our forwards look smaller than the opposition in both height and body.
Except that is for Luke Narraway whose head is twice the size it was last season. He is not a team player - he wanted the glory of scoring the winning try against the mighty Leicester. The non-pass aside, what did he contribute? Nothing but average play, which is, I'm afraid, what most of our forwards are.
S.T. 8/9/2008
- Match Reports