John Price's post-match thoughts

The official party line seems to be that Bucharest is a difficult place to play rugby, especially when it is cold and muddy. Add a French referee who interprets the laws differently and well, as Dean Ryan puts it, it's always going to be hard.
Now Dean Ryan was standing closer to the touch line than me (by about 10 feet) and obviously had a much better perspective of the game but I thought we were complacent and tactically naive in the conditions which were far from firm and dry. It didn't take an agronomist, however, to know how the pitch was going to play and indeed had a few players other than Ludo and Amor ventured from the dressing room before the ritual team warm up they may have had a better insight into what was to come.
I thought our problems emanated from the the complete change at 8, 9 and 10. In simple terms they just didn't gel and our game did not improve until Richards and Ludo made simultaneous substitutions, along with Mefin Davies and Gary Powell. Unfortunately it took Gloucester 62 minutes to make such a game changing decision.
As for the referee, well yes, his interpretation was bound to different from the likes of Spredders and Maybank but that's virtually always the case when you play in Europe. He sin-binned two of theirs and one of ours; Terry, who was lucky not to see the red card for his infringement of a dangerous shoulder charge.
Before the match it was thought that a few players who have not had regular starts would take the opportunity to prove their point. Sadly they merely confirmed Dean Ryan's opinion that they are not worthy of first team places.
We had the opportunity to put the quarter final seedings to bed but now Gloucester have only a one try advantage over Newcastle to take into the final round of pool games.
Let's hope it's not as cold and sticky next Saturday against Bayonne.