Sixways |
Guinness
Premiership |
Sunday
4 September 2005 |
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Ludo
saves the day |
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Worcester 15 Gloucester
15 |
The first fixture of any new season is usually eagerly awaited but on this occasion the match at sweltering Sixways was a passionate affair but eventually turned out to be a scrappy encounter with the final score of a poor game 15-15. The height of the mercury was higher than the quality of the match on show and neither side deserved to win a game that was a poor advert for local derbies with little for the record crowd of spectators to enthuse over.
The fact that no tries were scored by either side gives some indication of the error strewn affair that ensued with all the points coming from the boot.
From the time when Adam Balding was forced off in the opening minutes with a deliberate, calculated illegal shoulder charge, which surely should have earned Worcester’s Drew Hickey a card, it was clear that the home side were determined to adopt a negative, disruptive and physically aggressive type of game plan. Perhaps a citing will be forthcoming?
Sadly Gloucester allowed themselves to be dragged into the war of attrition and must have conceded close on two dozen infringements that were deemed penalty offences by referee Ashley Rowden. A hugely unacceptable count by any standards, let alone Premiership rugby.
Despite the early loss of Balding and also Jake Boer with a blood injury, Gloucester had made an encouraging start as a strong drive by the forwards led by Ollie Azam, set up Ludovic Mercier for a straight forward drop goal. Ludo followed this up with a well struck penalty kick and we all looked forward to more points as the Cherry and Whites seemed to have more ideas behind the scrum.
A sharp passage of play saw Peter Richards break clear and a try seemed to be on but his pass went astray and the chance was lost. Gloucester began to make too many mistakes and give away silly penalties which allowed the home side back into the game as James Brown kicked Worcester into the lead with three penalties and Gloucester were forced to live off scraps of possession.
Further penalty kicks were drilled deep into Gloucester territory to keep up the pressure but fortunately the Cherry and Whites won the crucial Worcester line out throws on their line and the defence held firm.
Not surprisingly it was Ludo who levelled the scores with a huge fifty plus yard kick from inside his own half at the end of the first half and kept the visitors in the game.
Brown edged Worcester back in front but Ludo responded to keep Gloucester level, in a match that was increasingly disjointed and stop-start, with too many errors as the penalties continued to flow—most of them against Gloucester.
The Cherry and White’s scrum looked seriously disjointed after Patrice Collazo left the field having picked up a knock and the strong Worcester front row established some suspect supremacy and looked the best part of their limited strategy.
Gloucester’s efforts were particularly frustrated by the performance of scrum half Peter Richards. As the game progressed so did his mistakes and the harder he tried, the more he struggled.. Too many wrong options and poor passes and it came as no surprise when another new boy, Haydn Thomas replaced him. Bryan Redpath clearly has a major coaching task on his hands if Richards is to fulfil his ambitions and aspirations.
The visitors looked more incisive following the change at scrum half where Thomas concentrated on providing an accurate sharp service and Gloucester began to look a better side in the final quarter. Two late try scoring chances were missed as Gloucester at last managed to finish up with a period of sustained pressure and continuity.
The re-signing of Ludo has not only been popular with supporters off the field but his efforts on the field did the most to keep the Cherry and Whites in contention—thankfully he is now a better all round player than when he left Kingsholm—on this team’s showing he needs to be, without him Gloucester would probably have lost.
Faced with the downside of the likely long term loss of Adam Balding, there were a couple of minor plus points in that both of the injury prone pair, Phil Vickery and Mike Tindall lasted the distance, albeit clearly in need of some serious match practice.
A disappointing day but at least we didn’t lose.
Sale at Kingsholm will be a much more competitive rugby playing prospect with their strong wingers and able three quarters behind Charlie Hodgson.
'Must do better', as the old schoolmaster used to say.
Pricey's Postscript
The try bonanza of the pre-season had whet the appetite of the Gloucester supporters and indeed for the first 20 minutes of this opening Guinness Premiership league game it looked like we were going to brush aside the Worcester stubborness to earn maximum points.
The early loss of Balding was a set-back but Gloucester had 6 points on the board without too much difficulty. Worcester were not going to roll over however and their doggedness at the scrum slowed the Gloucester advance but a feeling pervaded that if Gloucester could move up a gear the game would be theirs.
Unfortunately the Gloucester gear box jammed and a series of unnecessary penalties allowed Worcester to get back into the game which by the end they were dominating. Only the boot of Mercier kept Gloucester hanging in there and at the end of the eighty minutes the Gloucester supporters who had expected so much were clearly relieved to achieve the two points of a draw.
There were a number of lessons to be learned from the visit to Sixways, not least the fundemental one of not giving away penalty after penalty - it's very difficult to score tries when you keep giving the opposition the ball!
J.G.P. 5/9/2005
Gloucester
J.Goodridge
M.Foster, M.Tindall, H.Paul, R.Thirlby
L.Mercier, P.Richards (rep. H.Thomas 68)
P.Collazo (rep: G.Powell 55), O.Azam (rep: M.Davies 48), P.Vickery
A.Brown, A.Eustace
A.Hazell, A.Balding (rep M.Cornwell 5), J.Boer (rep P.Buxton 2-11)
Referee : - Ashley Rowden
Attendance :- 9,726LAST SEASON'S REPORT
Worcester 13 Gloucester 18 - Saturday 18 October 2004