Guinness Premiership - 20 November, 2009
Gloucester 12 - Leicester 9
Gloucester Rediscover 'The Dog'
Let’s start with the obvious – this was as poor a Leicester performance as I’ve ever seen. However, they didn’t come into the game on a six match losing run, and despite the traditional Tigers complaint, it was Glaws who were more weakened by call-ups, injuries and suspension. So, despite the caveat, this could just be the game that turned our season round. Confidence is a huge thing in rugby, and if Tuqiri had snatched the most unjust of victories, Glaws might have gone into freefall – this was as important a win as you could imagine.
Glaws were the better team throughout, but our backs lacked any sort of a cutting edge – without Tinds, Sinbad and Morgan we struggle to score tries. As a result we were very lateral, and our best moments came though the pack. In recent weeks our forwards have found some dog and it begs a couple of questions: why didn’t they do it before, and have we yet come up against a proper opposition pack?
The entire Glaws eight were superb, starting with the front row. It’s great to see Nick Wood back and in good form – at his best he was one of the best looseheads in the Premiership, and after a blip is heading back to that form. Dawaduik did well at hooker and, bar a few not straights, kept the line-out in good shape – conversely, for the first time Mefin Davies actually looked his age. Somerville is immense: he does his work at the scrum but in the loose he is fantastic with an amazing work-rate, and he also takes no nonsense from any opposition player!
Attwood had another great game – he’s a natural leader and isn’t afraid to make his point to the opposition, or to his teammates if he thinks they need it. He’s a future Gloucester captain in the making if he continues to progress. Will James had a better game than of late but his natural instinct is to go to ground and he rarely makes the impact that a man of his size should. Between them they neutralised the Leicester line-out and made Parling and Kay look average.
The back-row were excellent too. Bucko was his usual self with a fantastic work-rate, and Jake has made a remarkable come-back. Delve too was solid and is another who always gives his all.
It was at half-back that I think we saw Gloucester’s future. It won’t please everyone, and Dodger will be very unhappy, but I think we have in Freddie Burns a prospect that is better than Ryan Lamb was at the same stage of his career. Burns oozes class and he has the physical presence and the boot that Lamb will never have. He’s still learning but he’s a hell of a prospect. ‘Brush’ confirmed that he has a calf problem that leads to him cramping up, and that it needs to be sorted, but the lad is still only 19. Dave Lewis is gradually getting back to the sort of form that we saw before his horrible injury – his pass still needs to improve, but he has an eye for a break and his partnership with Burns can be a great one for Glaws.
The rest of the backs were, to be frank, moderate, Big Les apart. He made some trademark runs, and Trinder put in the key tackle of the match in the dying seconds, but that apart they never really looked like scoring.
But this wasn’t a night about individual performances, but rather about playing for the jersey, and you couldn’t fault a single Glaws player – they put their bodies on the line for the shirt and thankfully they got their reward. Bryan Redpath was a hugely relieved man after the game, and unstinting in his praise for the attitude shown by the squad as the pressure mounted over the past weeks.
We were missing sixteen full internationals and when we get some of them back we can still be a force to be reckoned with – believe it or not, what we saw on Friday night was evidence of our strength in depth! There are some tough selection decisions ahead for Brush and his colleagues as some of the youngsters have taken their chances and don’t deserve to be cast aside.
The one disappointment for me was the crowd of 12,500 for a game against Leicester Tigers under floodlights – we brag about being the best supporters in the land, but for me it has a hollow ring to it. Would Saints or Tigers supporters have stayed away just because their team had lost a few games? I don’t think so.
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