Four Points Gained or Bonus Point Lost?
I reckon watching Glaws in the past two games has been at least as tough as a walk in the Sahara, and I bet the weather was better there too!
Leicester was a tough one – they played better than they have for a while as Richard Cockerill admitted, and on their home turf gave us a tough time. Glaws didn’t play badly, but we missed Tinds and Sinbad, and with the Welford Rd baying for blood, it was only an amazing defensive effort that kept the scoreline half respectable. We gave away bucketloads of penalties – the Tigers crowd ended up singing ‘Same old Gloucester, always cheating’, and they were spot on. A dodgy yellow card didn’t help the cause but, in all honesty, it didn’t affect the final score.
That made the home fixture against Wasps yet another ‘must win’ game, and we did – but only just. It will remain one of life’s mysteries just how we could be so dominant in the scrum, and have so much possession, but fail to get the BP and miss the opportunity to humiliate the Pests.
Let’s start with the good points. The pack were excellent and dominated Wasps from the start – if Tim Payne is an international prop then it can only be for the England Women’s team, as Nick Wood can rarely have had an easier day. As for what Somerville did to their young loosehead – if the NSPCC had seen it they would have taken action! Somerville was amazing: he tackled like a madman and he never stopped – he’s a model for young props and his fitness level must be incredible. Whoever suggested he was just here to top up his pension needs his head feeling. Olly was good too, and against a dodgy Wasps line-out his throwing looked fine. Will James had one of his best games, and has started to make the ground that his bulk suggests he should – Alex Brown was excellent too.
The back row was pretty decent too: I thought Naz was below his best, but Haze and Delve were typically outstanding.
Our problems all lie in the backs at present and without Tinds and Sinbad, we again looked bereft of ideas. I differ from some posters in that I thought Spencer had another good game, but I thought Lawson had a very poor game – any 10 is going to struggle on the end of some of the ponderous passes he threw.
Barkley continues to look uncomfortable, and the rumours are rife that he’ll cut and run back to B***. I hope that he doesn’t, but time will tell. Allen got his chance at 13 and just about did OK before limping off again. Sharples didn’t look out of place and has clearly immediately shot ahead of Foster in the pecking order – he’s one for the future.
The stars in the back were Morgan and Balshaw, and their tries were awesome. Morgan surprised me with the speed that he showed and I’m keen to see his try again – I bet Shaun Edwards, when he can spare Wasps a moment – won’t be pleased with the defensive effort. Balsh similarly showed the pace that we know he has, and he was celebrating some way out in taking his chance – in Barkley’s defence, he threw a cracking pass to start the move off.
It was great to see Qera back, and it didn’t take him long to get back on the scoreboard! Let’s hope DR keeps giving him 20 minutes or half an hour for a few more weeks until he’s back to full fitness – remember it’s not too long ago that the injury he had would have finished a player’s career. We need him for the run in and the best way to get him there is for the coaches to look after him.
So, as I kept hearing on the Radio Glaws post mortem, a win is a win. That’s self evidently true, but for me this wasn’t as much four points won as a bonus point squandered. |
