The weather was good, the pitch was good but the match was poor.
I don’t know which was the worst performance of the day — the referee or the players?
Certainly in the first three games of the current Guinness Premiership the standard of rugby at its best has only been good in patches and for the main part decidedly mediocre.
Having played against three of the league’s so- called leading teams on the opening weeks I don’t think there has been a side that looks to be top class at the moment. Neither Leicester, Bath or Harlequins appear to be outstanding sides at the moment.
Unfortunately the same can be said of the Gloucester team.
Too many basic mistakes, schoolboy errors a plenty that gifted Quins three tries, plus a lack of fluency and creativity from the Cherry and Whites that’s for sure. Somehow we did just enough to win.
Perhaps some of the blame for a sequence of scrappy games can be laid a the door of the referees. Quite whether it is all down to the advent of the ELVs in uncertain but it does appear that each referee has a very different way of interpretation in the contact areas and at the breakdown in particular. All too often players were off their feet and allowed to join rucks from the side. A real mess.
One sure thing is that Rob Debney must be the worst referee in the Premiership. He was never in control and it showed.
Just like the previous week’s encounter at the wreck against Bath, Gloucester had to thank the opposition’s poor place kicking for being in contention at the break. This week it was the turn of Quins’ Chris Malone to miss out on ten first half points which could well have cost the visitors the result in a close game.
The home side lost Carlos Nieto with a back injury before the late-comers had settled in their seats and within the first twenty minutes a lively Quins team had ten points on the board with two soft tries.
Gloucester were caught napping when a kick rebounded off an upright to be gratefully gathered for full back Mike Brown to stroll over virtually unopposed.
Quins second try was also a gift as a high kick downfield went loose. Gloucester’s confused players all looked at each other before scrum half Danny Care scored an easy try with all the room in the world.
Thankfully for the hosts Chris Malone was off –target with his goal kicks otherwise they could have been in serious trouble before Gloucester eventually began to rouse themselves.
Willie Walker and Mike Tindall made ground for the outstanding Ollie Morgan to force his way over in the corner for a great try.
Quins countered immediately from the re-start and when Gloucester infringed, Malone at last kicked a penalty to give the visitors a 13-5 interval lead.
Gloucester’s defence had been sloppy and their dissatisfaction with the referee was clear to see but thankfully they made a better start to the second half when Willie Walker kicked a penalty and followed that up with his second drop goal of the season to put them back in contention.
When Will Skinner was sent to the sin-bin Walker kicked the resultant penalty to edge the home side in front for the first time. 14-13.
Gloucester were now going forward with more purpose forcing some desperate defence from Quins before a quickly taken tap penalty from replacement Rory Lawson provided quick ball for Luke Narraway who resisted his usual attempt to go on his own and set up Alasdair Strokosch who ran in from 40 yards leaving the heavily hyped Danny Care trailing in his wake. 21-13.
Walker added the conversion but Quins were allowed back into the game when Willie Walker failed to tidy up another high kick before target man Lesley Vainikolo lost possession and Malone crossed with ease and converted his own try. 21-20.
With all to play for Gloucester upped their efforts and were rewarded when Olly Barkley, having missed an ambitious long kick was on target with a debut penalty goal enabling the Cherry and Whites to close the game out.
Once again Olly Morgan was in a class on his own and power-house Ollie Azam led from the front.
Gloucester are certainly not playing anything like as well as they did last season and next week’s trip to Sale will require a major all round improvement especially in defence which is not up to standard.
I'll bet Charlie Hodgson doesn't miss many kicks!
T.H. 21/9/2008




Why are so many kicks at goal being missed this season?
Butch James followed up his misses from last week with another nightmare against Irish.
Bruce Rehana missed four against Wasps at Northampton.
Quins' Luvenlyali missed six against Bristol, before Chris Malone had his costly failures at Kingsholm.
Ludo missed a few but kicked 334 points 2001-02 season!

Pricey's Postscript
It wasn't pretty but Gloucester had the fortitude to turn the game around and win.
That said there was very little else to write home about on the positive side.
The negatives came thick and fast especially the three tries that were gifted to 'Quins as a result of mistakes that even schoolboys would have been ashamed of.
There were some good performances from forwards but as individuals and not as a pack. All too often the forwards were strung across the pitch and very rarely acted as a unit in the loose.
I suggest that the finger of guilt should point at the coaches and not the players in that respect.
The backs did not shine for anything other than a glimmer although there was solid play from Morgan, Watkins and Barkley and occasionally Captain Mike Tindall.
Quins have moved on from being the flaky side of old to an impressive unit always looking to attack and Dean Richards has moulded them into a force to be reckoned with.
A very tight contest by two professional teams.
Sadly the standard of the refereeing was far from professional. The breakdown was a free for all at which Referee Debney exerted no control or direction. The new offside law at the scrum was completely disregarded by him and his two newly named Assistant Referees - if you put the three of them together you still wouldn't make an Irishman.
What is the point of pacing out five metres from the base of the scrum if the entire threequarter line moves forward as soon as the ball goes into the scrum? ? ?
J.G.P - 20/09/2008

Last Season - Gloucester 27 Harlequins 25 - Saturday 24 November 2007 Premiership Record versus Harlequins

Fixtures 2008-9 Match Reports - 2001--2008