Pemiership Review - Gloucester 17 - 22 Leicester Tigers

Last Friday night at Kingsholm was an exceptionally educational night for me, learning several important life lessons as I stood amongst the Gloucester faithful watching their beloved Cherry and Whites battle – but ultimately lose – against a dogged and ruthless Leicester outfit.  The first lesson was that if Leicester Tigers fans had a mirror-image, it is the regulars at Kingsholm.  Informed, knowledgeable about the game, endearingly one-eyed and spectacularly helpful in their assistance to the referee and his assistants, I found that the vast majority of folk in the West Country had first rate-banter and were a pleasure to watch the game with on a freezing Friday night.  I say the vast majority because, as with any club, there is the odd exception but I'll come to that later.

The second lesson is to never, ever trust the BBC sport website to be accurate or in-depth on anything.  Unless it happens to be football, whereupon they will not hesitate to tell you how many career-back-heeled goals the Carlisle striker has scored against his opponents for the day, Luton, who coincidently are enjoying their 25th day under the same manager.  I don't know if any of that is true, but it’s the kind of inane nonsense that's shoved in your face for 4th division English football.  Get the starting line-ups right for a game of Premiership rugby though between two of the biggest sides in England?  Oh no, that's far too much to ask.  For that reason, I proclaimed in my preview with some confidence that Gloucester had 'no ball-carriers' whatsoever, thanks to the absence of Kalamafoni, Qera and Morgan.  As it happened, Morgan was playing, but perhaps it speaks volumes of his performance that I didn't realise BBC Sport's mistake until 53 minutes into the game.  I've seen corpses play with more energy.

But before that point, we'd been treated to a frantic, occasionally scrappy but thoroughly entertaining game of rugby.  From the off, Gloucester threatened the Leicester line after reclaiming the kick off, with the referee missing a fairly obvious knock on by Morgan – the first of many odd calls by referee Greg Garner for both sides.  Strong defence by Julian Salvi, Dan Cole and Miles Benjamin kept a dangerous backline out, with Henry Trinder looking especially threatening, before a turnover led to the first break of the day, with Graham Kitchener stretching his legs to gallop 40 metres upfield.  Once that attack was repelled though, the electric Johnny May made room for the returning Shane Monahan to charge upfield, forcing the Tigers into conceding a penalty for offside.  It was a simple chance, but England international-Freddie Burns hooked it horribly wide.  My call of "You'll have to kick better than that if you want to play for Leicester, Freddie" was met with claims of "You can bloody have him".  Lesson number 3, Freddie Burns is not as highly rated at Kingsholm as he seems to be around the rest of the country.

However, the man rumoured to be a targeted replacement for the East Midlanders should Toby Flood move to Toulon made amends just minutes later by claiming the opening try of the game with a sharp piece of defending.  Playing advantage for a knock-on, Garner called "advantage" over a fraction of a second before Flood released a pass – a pass that was picked off by a delighted Burns, who cruised in under the posts and nudged the simple conversion over.  The decision to allow the try was absolutely fair by Garner – it was unfortunate timing, but advantage had been called over – but then, in an identical situation 5 minutes later, Garner called the game back for a Leicester scrum.  Bizarre.  The scrum, however, was looking like an uncharacteristically simple affair as the Tigers put the squeeze on the beleaguered Gloucester front-row, so criticised this season.  With Marcos Ayerza, Tom Youngs and Cole doing the business of earning a penalty, Flood knocked over a penalty from 40 metres.

Burns, though, was having less luck with the boot, snatching a drop goal horribly wide before skewing another kick, this one from a lineout drive and not before Garner had opted against giving Scott Hamilton what looked to be a clear yellow card for a deliberate knock-on when the Cherry and Whites had an overlap out wide.  The hosts were left to rue their wastefulness within the Leicester half though as Jamie Gibson was pulled down in a lineout by the halfway line – conceded from a Burns kick out on the full – and Flood landed a 3 pointer from 45 metres.  He had a chance to give his side the lead just minutes later from a simpler position after a lovely break by Miles Benjamin, but this time the Leicester captain caught the kicking bug and was off-target with his attempt.

Leicester, though, were growing into the game, and after their set piece had the Gloucester scrum going backwards – following a strong surge from Kitchener and Ayerza – the sharp Ben Youngs pickpocketed Dan Robson, allowing for quick ball to be flung out to Flood, who squeezed a delightful offload into the hands of Dan Bowden.  The kiwi centre dived in by the posts and, with half time approaching, the Tigers had a 13-7 lead.  It was all Leicester now and, although Flood was off target with another penalty attempt, his kicking from hand was exemplary and forced Gloucester to play on the back foot.  It looked as though the visitors were about to add another after a powerful surge by Gibson, but Benjamin chucked a bizarre offload straight into the hands of Gloucester hooker Darren Dawidiuk.  The ball made its way to Trinder, who hoofed the ball ahead with May chasing in a footrace against…Dan Cole.  Well, Cole has a lot of qualities – scrummaging, effecting turnovers, looking old etc – but apparently keeping up with one of the fastest wingers in the Premiership is not one of them.  May scooted around Cole, collected the ball without breaking stride, and touched down beneath the sticks to give the hosts a 14 – 13 lead going into half time, with Rob Cook's conversion, Freddie Burns being forced to hand over kicking duties.  It was at this point I met the "exception" to the great crowd (see above), as the woman behind me started to go absolutely mad at the sight of the disappointed Tigers players waiting in the corner of the deadball area to leave the pitch.  I explained that there was no law that they had to face Cook as he was taking the kick, and in fact they were completely out of eye-shot.  She then said it was disrespectful, to which I reminded her that the Leicester pack are exceptionally big and ugly, and if Rob Cook had a choice between not looking at them or having them lined up ready to run at him, he'd probably choose the former.  She then informed me I didn't know what I was on about and that I was "scum".  Lesson number 4 – women with no teeth at Kingsholm can be surprisingly sensitive.

The second half started in less dramatic fashion, but it was the hosts who once again started stronger.  Rob Cook, however, proved to be no more reliable than Freddie Burns off the tee, missing two very gettable kicks at goal, one of them after Garner had inexplicably penalised Cole for slipping his bind when the reason for the slip was that the Nick Wood was backpeddling at a rate of knots.  With the home crowd growing restless at their side's inaccuracy in front of the posts, it was with cheers of relief that they greeted a Billy Twelvetrees – the hosts' 3rd kicker of the night – successful kick, giving Gloucester a 17 – 13 lead with 20 minutes left to play.  A good job he got it too, because I swear that I saw Rupert Harden wiping down his boots in anticipation of being next in line.

But, as in the first half, Leicester came back into it.  Again Flood was the architect of the field position, offloading superbly for the busy Benjamin to make yards, before Blaine Scully and the superb Kitchener both made ground close to the Cherry and White's line.  It yielded a simple penalty for flood, and moments later he had another after the Tigers scrum buried their opposite numbers after a faulty Gloucester line out.  It was deja vous 5 minutes later as well, when the Leicester 8 again did the business to give Flood another 3 points, and the power of the Tigers pack had hauled them into a 22 – 17 lead.

With the clock running red, Leicester had one more penalty to kill the game off, but Flood was wide and, more importantly, hadn't given it the oomph to go dead in any event.  It meant that Gloucester, aided by an unacceptably slow Leicester chase, countered quickly and aggressively, with Twelvetrees and Burns showing lovely hands complemented by sharp half breaks.  It looked as though we would be seeing yet another unbelievable finish at Kingsholm, but Garner blew his whistle again for crossing in the midfield, and the Tigers had a valuable away win.

As the Kingsholm faithful filtered out, it was striking that there wasn't the fury that would usually go with a loss against Leicester – sure, there was disappointment, but it almost seemed like the result was expected.  "Put together your pack and our outside backs, then you'd have a great side" was one comment to me, a stark reminder that, for all of Gloucester's talent out wide, their lack of set piece foundation and aggression in the loose is costing them dear.  But to put that as squarely the reason for their loss would be unfair.  Lesson number 5.  Leicester, even with a backline that resembles their 3rd XV, will still find a way to claw themselves a win against anyone.  As if you needed reminding of that.

 

What else was happening in the Premiership last weekend?

 

Bath 21 – 16 Exeter Chiefs:  Bath won  the battle of the West Country (well, the form West Country sides) thanks to the boot of George Ford, who scored all of the hosts points.  The visitors picked up two cracking tries through their locks, Damien Welch and Dean Mumm to claim a losing bonus point.

Worcester Warriors 10 – 33 Northampton Saints:  The misery continued for Dean Ryan's side as they slumped to yet another loss, scoring just one try through Ignacio Mieres before Saints pulled away late on, touching down through Samu Manoa, Tom Collins and Tom Wood.

Saracens 24 – 19 Sale Sharks: The league leaders were given a scare by a Danny Cipriani-inspired Sale side, but claimed the win thanks to tries from George Kruis and Jack Wilson, after Cipriani had dotted down for the visitors.

London Irish 12 – 19 London Wasps:  An important win for Wasps was tainted by injury to Christian Wade.  The only try of the game was of the penalty variety after James O'Connor thought he was playing Aussie Rules with a deliberate knock-on, with the rest of the points coming courtesy of the boots of Andy Goode, O'Connor and Shane Geraghty.
 

Newcastle Falcons 9 – 35 Harlequins:Quins picked up an emphatic win at Newcastle, picking up a bonus point win in the process – the only one of the weekend, in fact.  Tries through Tom Williams, Sam Smith (2) and Danny Care were enough to subdue a typically stubborn Falcons defence.