Guinness Premiership - Saturday 5th December, 2009
Gloucester 25 - Newcastle Falcons 13
Glaws Triumph in 'Huge' game
Cir Mhor Reports
This was genuinely a huge game for Glaws: if we’d lost then who knows where our season would have gone, but a win meant that everything is still possible. In the end we did it well against a Newcastle side that isn’t the collection of prima donnas of previous years.
Newcastle wanted the win, they played for the shirt, and we saw them off with some ease – eventually! After the game ‘Brush’ once again commented that our manner of play may have been a bit boring, but ‘Winning is everything in the Premiership’. I don’t think he needs to worry, because I bet there weren’t too many of us that were bothered about our style of play – those days have gone, for now we’ll settle for the four points!
At the start I thought we might just click and score a handful of tries, as our first came after sustained Glaws pressure and was well worked in what were hardly ideal conditions for running rugby. Slick handling ended with a lovely pass from Olly Morgan to send Sharples in. Robinson slotted the conversion and we were surely off to a flying start.
However, fair play to Newcastle as they then got going and put us under as much pressure as we could handle. The Glaws defence held firm, and I think that in the last couple of weeks we’ve learned something about our team. If we’re given time to organise then our defence is pretty good, but if teams take quick penalties and run at us then our shape can go.
Two things helped us on Saturday: Micky Young was missing at 9 for Newcastle, so they lacked the spark that he can bring, and this was much more Rory Lawson’s kind of game. He can be somewhat exposed when we‘re playing a game that requires quick ball and a fizzing pass, but give him a battle in the trenches and there’s no-one better – I thought he had a really good game. I’m not his greatest fan but no-one can ever question his courage and commitment – in a wet winter he’s probably what we need.
The key moments of the game for me were the ten minutes running up to half time. Newcastle threw everything at us, and had they scored, who knows which way the game might have gone. In the end a combination of Glaws commitment and the Falcons’ errors meant that we kept our lead at the break.
Brush made it clear that what he said at half time was that we weren’t getting anything out of the way that we were playing, so it was time for Nicky Robinson to keep us in Newcastle’s half of the pitch. He did, Newcastle infringed at the breakdown – five penalties in ten minutes – and the game was ours. Not wonderfully pretty, but damned effective.
The break when Q was injured – thank goodness the news seems to be good as it was scarily reminiscent of the Duncan McRae incident of a few years ago – ruined the game. Players got cold and when play restarted it was scrappy and error-strewn stuff. The rest of the game can be summarised in a few words. Glaws got a drop goal which sealed the game, Falcons disappointingly got a consolation try, and right at the death we turned down a chance to run a penalty and took another three points. As Bryan Redpath said, winning was everything.
For me the highlights included the second perfect line-out game in a row – OK, there was one that was very scrappy but after a bit of to’ing and fro’ing we got the ball back so I’m counting it as won! Well done to Scott Lawson, Dave Attwood, Alex Brown and the rest of the pack.
The scrum held its own. Golding and Hayman are nobody’s mugs and it was never going to be an easy day at the office, but the boys came through without ever looking as though they would dominate. I thought the back row did well – Delve caught the restarts and we had none of the dramas in that area that we had against Quins, and Strokosch and Qera both had good games – and it was great to see Narraway come back.
I wonder whether we’re seeing two distinct half-back pairings emerge: Robinson and Lawson for the winter battles, and Burns and Lewis for the quicker pitches and more expansive game? That’s probably unfair on Robinson who also likes to run the ball, but it’s not a bad problem for the coaches to have.
The backs did OK but I think most of us are of the view that once we get Tinds back and Sinbad on the wing then we can probably start to score more tries.
Now to the ref! Lots of debate about why he didn’t use his card and in my view he should have done. E F-S should have gone early on for the high tackle – if the Newcastle player had milked it then it might have been different. The Newcastle penalty count was too high – I reckon it was 14 to our seven – and whilst none of them individually cried out for a card, a collective one might have been in order.
However, I suspect the ref simply thought ‘They’re doing a good enough job of throwing this game away without any assistance from me’! Besides, not too many of the infringements were in the ‘red zone’. As for his ref’ing of the scrum: I’m always bemused when people, who are on average between 50 and 100 metres from play, and in some cases – not you or me, of course – have a sketchy knowledge of the Laws, feel that they can see more than a highly-trained professional who is close to the action. It takes me back to when I used to sit in the Buildbase and the guy behind me shouted with great authority about not straight at the line-out, crooked scrum feeds and offsides – all from his position high up behind the posts! A Glaws born and bred mate of mine assures me that it’s in the genes, and a true Glaws fan will always know instinctively that the opposition are infringing and that the ref is crap!
Here’s a scenario for you – probably won’t happen, but we can hope. We sneak a win away against the Weegies, and see them off at CG, before then beating B*** again at the Wreck – that would put a whole different perspective on the season, wouldn’t it? Fingers crossed.
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