Premiership Review - Leicester Tigers 11 - 8 Gloucester Rugby

I think it's fair to say it's been a pretty miserable month or two, weather-wise.  Waking up to a scenario as cheerful as a grumpy bulldog's face, my average morning consists of walking to work in the dark with rain and gale-force winds bizarrely blowing directly into my face no matter which I turn.  And I count myself as one of the lucky ones, seeing as I don't have to swim to get out of my house and the fact that my living room hasn't developed an unwanted bathing area in the corner.  Yep, this sort of stuff begins to grate on you after a while, and so when a rare day of sunshine and blue sky appears overhead, there's a real desire to make the most of it.

For most people, that would entail washing the car, going for a bike ride or walking around the park.  Or even running if you're particularly adventurous.  For rugby players though, this is a chance to finally express yourself on the pitch, to play with a ball that doesn't resemble a bar of soap and on a pitch that doesn't resemble a bowl of chocolate mousse.  Surely, if ever there was a chance to play some feel-good rugby, this was it?  And when Gloucester lined up to play Leicester Tigers in the East Midlands on Sunday, you saw two sides that needed a splash of the feel-good-factor.  For Leicester, an unprecedented injury list and a subsequent lack of cohesion has seen them scrapping for a playoff spot, failing to impress even in victory, whilst Gloucester are suffering a season of lower-mid-table obscurity after coming into this term with such high expectations.  Now was a chance to set everything right.

And so, with a sense of optimism as bright as the early spring sun which was shining down on Welford Road for the first time in what felt like a decade, the clash kicked off.  But the hosts' expectations and optimism were found to be sadly misplaced.  A superb catch from the kick off by Henry Trinder gave Gloucester promising field position, but some powerful and energetic defence from Tom Youngs barrelled Will James backwards and forced the turnover.  That would turn out to be the most forward momentum the hosts would gain for the first quarter of the match.

Instead, it was the Cherry and Whites who looked by far the most enterprising.  After Rob Cook had danced down the right hand side, Ryan Mills – a centre by trade and preferred to the apparently Leicester-bound Freddie Burns – put impressive width on the attack and stretched the Tigers' defence quickly to breaking point.  It looked like Sione Kalamaoni would walk in for a superb opening try, only to be called back for a forward pass from Trinder.  It was a lucky escape for Leicester, but they weren't able to make it count as Flood missed a relatively straight forward penalty from 40 metres out, and they were to ride their luck once again shortly afterwards.  Once more it was Cook who instigated the break out from deep following another marvellous wide pass from Mills, and Martyn Thomas made good yards up the left before flinging a pass over the top and back inside as he was hunted down 5 metres out by Mathew Tait and Niki Goneva.  The pass missed the onrushing Charlie Sharples but Matt Kvesic had the chance to pick up and score – but knocked on with the line at his mercy.  It was a difficult chance, but Gloucester were well aware that such opportunities needed to be taken against the Champions – even if they were looking hideously out of sorts.

Gradually, the hosts tried to put together some sort of cohesion and momentum in attack.  It eventually happened when Tom Youngs blasted through two tackles to put his side on the front foot, but with Flood ignoring the wide options outside him, the attack quickly became cluttered the ball was coughed up.  Despite the territorial dominance over the next 10 minutes, Tigers never really looked like threatening – shocking considering that they have had the most potent attack in the league for 3 out of the last 4 seasons.  Instead they fell back on their scrum dominance, where Marcos Ayerza was destroying Sila Puafisi, to earn themselves a penalty, which Flood converted to put the hosts up by 3 points after half an hour. 

Cook responded in kind 5 minutes later (disappointingly without his trademark 'fat surfer' kicking stance) after Graham Kitchener had been caught holding on in the tackle, and the scores were tied at 3-3 at half time.  It had been a dire game of rugby on the most part, with the only flashes of inspiration really coming from the team in red and white.  Leicester had taken this perfect day for running rugby and turned it into another exhibition of the indecisive and slow play which has unfortunately characterised their season so far.

They started brightly in the second half, though, when Tom Youngs made yards in the tackle and then Matt Smith burst clean through the Gloucester defence, spotting Mills out of position in the line.  Although he was caught by Cook, the Tigers had a great shot at a try on the left, only for miscommunication between Flood and Logovi'i Mulipola to lead to the former-England man to get absolutely obliterated by Puafisi.  It was a sad indication of the frustration in the Leicester changing room as Welford Road were met with the sight of Flood and Mulipola, teammates, almost coming to blows in disagreement over the incident.

In truth, Flood had failed to control or dictate play at all in attack, unlike in previous years where he has been the driving force behind Leicester's game.  It was in stark contrast to part-time 10 Mills, who helped his side hit the lead with another good display of attacking width.  This time Trinder managed to get on the outside of Tom Youngs and, although the England hooker made a superb recovering tackle, Martyn Thomas found space down the right and flipped the ball inside to Sharples, who stepped inside the over-committed Tait.  Cook missed the conversion, but Gloucester had a deserved lead.

They had the chance to extend it when Kalamafoni burst through the Tigers' defensive line, with Tait saving the day once more, before Sharples swooped on a loose ball to cruise up to the Leicester 22 from behind halfway, only to see his pass to Mike Tindall fail to reach its mark.  More escapes for the East Midlanders – more missed chances for the visitors.

And at Welford Road, you always sense that a missed chance will be costly, and – predictably – it proved to be so.  Strong carries by Tom Youngs, Mulipola and Goneva finally yielded some quick ball for Leicester and – for the first time in the match, and belatedly on 65 minutes – they looked like the real deal.  Mathew Tait provided the finishing touch to a power packed move by gliding through a gap to touch down to the right of the posts, and although Flood missed a simple conversion, you could feel the momentum shift.

Soon Tait was at it again as he tore through the Gloucester defence from his own 22 metre line, but Goneva knocked on 5 metres out as the hosts looked to hammer home the advantage.  The visitors' defence was magnificent – with Kvesic in particular superb over the ball – but eventually something had to give and, as it had done all game, it was the scrum.  The Gloucester 8 buckled under the set-piece pressure, and Flood made no mistake this time, giving his side an 11-8 lead with 2 minutes to play.

Gloucester threw everything at the hosts but, thanks in part to a superb take from a cross-field kick by Blaine Scully, they were denied.  It was spirited, but there were no heroics.  In the fading sunlight, both sides trudged off – Gloucester, impressive but winless; Leicester, dire but victorious. 

Some Cherry and White fans cheekily sang "Same old Leicester, always cheating" as the teams walked off the pitch, to which a couple of Tigers' faithful gave the usual riposte of "Same old Leicester, always winning".  But it felt half-hearted.  The sentiment may be true for now, but with performances like that, how long will it last?

 
What else was happening in the Premiership this weekend?

Sale Sharks 10 – 15 Saracens:  Sarries put in a big second half display to score 12 unanswered points from the boot of Charlie Hodgson to claim an important win for the visitors.  Sale scored the only try of the game in the first half through hooker Marc Jones.

Harlequins 18 – 14 Newcastle Falcons:  Quins were made to dig deep and come from behind with 5 minutes remaining as they claimed a crucial win over Newcastle.  Ollie Lindsay-Hague and Sam Smith touched down for the hosts, with Alex Tait responding for the visitors.

London Wasps 20 – 23 London Irish:  Irish held on for a great win at Wasps despite having Tomas O'Leary sent off for stamping after 50 minutes.  Early scores from Ian Humphreys and David Paice put the visitors in control before winger James Short grabbed a score for Wasps.

Northampton Saints 30 – 14 Worcester Warriors:  Saints were made to dig deep for their win over bottom-of-the-table Worcester, relying on a penalty try and two second half scores from GJ Van Velze to seal the game.  The Warriors scored a try themselves with a well taken effort from Samoan veteran David Lemi.
 

Exeter Chiefs 23 – 27 Bath:  Bath continued their hoodoo over the Chiefs with a George Ford-inspired win over the hosts in this West Country derby.  Whilst Exeter managed to cross trice though Ben White and Ian Whitten, the visitors grabbed three 5-pointers through Ollie Devoto, Kyle Eastmond and Nick Abendanon.