Heineken Cup: 16 January, 2010
Gloucester 23 - Biarritz 8
Much Better!
Can I take you back to 06 September of last year, Gloucester’s first game of the season, when a crowd of nearly 13,000 – that’s almost 3,000 more than we had for this game – saw us dispose of Bath in fine style. We were on a high and the mood was pure optimism. And then we found out that it wasn’t us that was good as much as Bath being desperately poor, as the following results proved. My only nagging doubt after what seemed to be an excellent Glaws performance is how good were Biarritz?
The Glaws pack was outstanding, but that also gives food for thought: even French teams that capitulate on the road tend to have a strong scrum, and at times this season ours hasn’t looked that good. The fact that we could demolish the Biarritz scrum makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Not to mention these caveats would be daft, but on balance – and I’m regularly told that I wear Cherry and White tinted spectacles – I’m inclined to give Glaws the benefit of the doubt and believe that this was another step forward for Bryan Redpath’s squad. The big question is “What has brought about such a change?”
Something happened in the wake of the away defeat at Glasgow. The rumours are of some frank and forthright exchanges in the dressing room after the match – if you haven’t heard those rumours then you must have been on another planet for the past few weeks – but let’s leave them aside and look at the facts. In the run-up to the following match Brush made some comments about allowing the players to express themselves a bit more, and we’ve gradually seen the evidence of that in the past few weeks.
Against Wuss in particular we showed much more adventure, and against Biarritz we actually ran the ball out of defence a few times – it wasn’t the Glaws of old, but it was the closest to it that we’ve seen for a while. Things are changing, and for the better. It may be my imagination, but I think that the players also look happier and more fired up than they have been on some occasions – that could simply be things falling into place, or it could be relief at the shackles being removed.
I thought it was a really good performance from 1 to 15 against Biarritz. The pack was magnificent – special mention to Alasdair Dickinson and Scott Lawson, where would we be without those Scots! We’ve always known that Dickinson was quick for a prop and he showed that in the run-up to our first try, but he scrummaged well too, as did our entire front row. I’m still uneasy about Scott Lawson popping up at outside centre as often as he does, but that’s probably just me being old fashioned! Our front three were human dynamos in the loose and I reckon that’s the Somerville influence rubbing off.
In the backs we played centres in the centre, and wingers on the wings – I know, it’s revolutionary stuff, isn’t it?! Amazingly, it worked with Molenaar and E F-S having cracking games and always looking dangerous. Big Les – the butt of so many unkind remarks on Shedweb – had a cracking game and was as fired up as I’ve ever seen him.
When we defended that series of 5m scrums, he was running round like a lunatic slapping people on the back and encouraging them. With the ball in hand he looked powerful and dangerous, but he was taking the ball at pace rather than being asked to make ground from a standing start – used properly he’s still a terrifying prospect. Sinbad had a quiet game – he was probably in a state of shock at being allowed to play in his proper position – but Olly Morgan was his usual effective self. His kicking from hand is good and I wonder why we don’t use him when we’re kicking penalties for touch on the left hand side of the pitch?
Nicky Robinson is so left-footed that he always finds the angle tight on those kicks. The stand-off had a good game, one five minute patch apart. His place kicking was solid, and then he missed an easy one early in the second half. That seemed to dent his confidence and he missed a tackle and had a kick charged down straight afterwards – it was as if his concentration went. However, he then stuck a 50m clearance up the touchline and that seemed to get him back on track.
Rory Lawson’s pass, while never going to be outstanding, looked better, but he still took an interminable length of time to get the ball out on occasions – scrum-half is still a problem position for us.
It was great to see Tinds as water-boy – he looked to be in a cracking good mood throughout, and his presence was surely a sign that he’s not too far away from coming back. Also on the way back is Marco – he says that he’s ready and will get a run-out for the ‘A’ team on Monday prior to being in contention for the NGD game. It’s the return of injured players that probably accounts for the gradual improvement in our form – I think sometimes we failed to understand just how much down to the bare bones BR has been on occasions this season, and on many occasions there haven’t been selection choices to be made. It now seems as though he does have options and I still believe that, when we have something like a full squad to choose from, we can still be a good side.
The game away at Newport is now a huge one, not just because we could get a quarter-final spot in the Losers’ Cup (I’ve always felt that Glaws even being in that competition is shameful as we should be better than that, but it’s important for financial reason that we qualify), but because it offers a chance to prove that the promise we think we’ve seen in recent weeks is real. Win down there and I’ll start to believe that the revival is actually happening. |
