Heineken Cup- 20 December, 2009
Gloucester 19 - Glasgow 6
A Game of Two Halves (no, it really was...)
Cir Mhor Reports
It’s getting harder and harder to weigh up this Gloucester side. In the first half it was a truly dreadful, lacklustre, and at times seemingly uninterested performance, but then they followed it with a second half that gave us hope that they can still be a good team. Baffled? I know that I am.
It’s hard to express just how mediocre our first-half performance was. The line-out was a shambles, the scrum was in disarray, there was no end of aimless kicking – usually straight down Dan Parks’ throat – and our discipline again failed us with Andy Hazell getting ten minutes in the bin. When we attacked it was lots of lateral passes with not much go forward, and at the breakdown Glasgow were all over us, looking by far the more streetwise outfit. Before the old chestnuts about the ref are trotted out – and his reffing of the breakdown was indeed mysterious – it was the same for both sides, but the visitors were much quicker to get a grasp on what he would and wouldn’t allow. Parks inevitably capitalised on our errors and his two penalties were the only scores of a desperately frustrating first 40 minutes. I was convinced that Gloucester’s sense of injustice would result in a big fight, and so bored was I with the lack of decent action that I would have welcomed it, but the lid was just about kept on.
The came the second half and Glasgow basically barely got a look in. I’m mystified about what happened during the interval. No doubt our coaches spoke to the ref, no doubt harsh words were spoken, but it’s hard to put your finger on what made the difference, other than Glaws seemed to decide to play rugby. When they did they made Glasgow look distinctly moderate, to the extent that I think we arguably squandered the chance of a bonus point win. Sharples scored yet again – he has his defensive failings, but he is becoming a high-class finisher – but we also squandered a golden opportunity when Andy Hazell tried to take a pass that was never meant to be his: had he left it Olly Morgan was home and hosed. Alex Brown scored our second try in the same corner as the first after some good work from Strokosch, and then with the final play of the game Sharples just over-ran his inside man and the pass was adjudged forward.
As to who starred for Glaws: in the first half you can take your pick as they were all pretty average, but in the second there were some highlights. When Greg Somerville came on he appeared to turn the Glaws scrum around – P D-J may be one of the best scrummagers in the GP (!!), but we were playing a Magners League team and he’d had a very tough day at the office. However, Somerville made mincemeat – seasonal twist, geddit – of his Glasgow opponent and also put in a couple of great hits on him in the loose. Nicky Robinson looked short on confidence in the first half, but when we were running the ball in the second half looked a different player – he may have the capability to be a kicking 10, but I don’t think that he enjoys it as much as being allowed to express himself. Gareth Delve put in a captain’s performance, leading by example and really putting his body on the line, and Strokosch had a good game too.
Line-out throwing apart, Scott Lawson had a decent game, and our other Lawson had one of his better games, although his pass is still far too variable for a top flight 9. Praise too for Tom Voyce who, after a personally difficult couple of weeks, came back and showed that he is a very decent winger – given a break from being played out of position he can turn out to be another good Dean Ryan signing! Then there’s Olly Morgan. The lad is now the subject of standing jokes from the wags in the crowd, and there was a lot of ‘Well he’s got through the warm-up’, and when he took a knock ‘He’s got up – that means he’ll only be out for six weeks!’ (you know who you were who said that!). However, when he’s fit he’s class and he got better as the match went on – please can we have a run of games…please?
My worry is that I’m wary of believing that the second-half performance was any kind of a turning point for our season. By not getting four tries we effectively ended any realistic prospect of progressing in the HC, and I’ve seen too many false dawns to assume that we’ll carry our second-half performance through to the Wreck – we’re as likely to produce another poor one away from home. However, a win is a win, and we’ll surely feel better going into next week’s game than B*** will after their loss.
Finally, the news that Brush has been talking to Geech must be acted upon. If we could get Geech on a part-time Consultancy deal I’d feel a lot more confident about the rest of the season. |
