Sale Sharks 13 Gloucester 11

By Whaley Shark
October 8 2011

 At last some proper rugby weather- none of this namby pamby sunshine any more; instead a cool, grey, drizzly day with a bit of a breeze, giving a wet ball and slippery conditions. It’ll be interesting to see how we cope against Gloucester? 

Well, overall, pretty well, I felt. The first quarter was pretty even, with both sides having spells of pressure, but failing to convert it to points on the board. Even though our scrum seemed to have serious problems, we managed to scramble the ball out after a Gloucester knock-on in midfield and Sam Tuitoupu, tidying up, let us make progress down the right. Gloucester infringed and Nick Macleod set up an attacking lineout about ten metres from the Gloucester line. After good work in the loose from Henry Thomas, Sam Tuitoupu’s half break sucked in the defence and he offloaded to the supporting Dave Seymour for a try, which Nick Macleod converted.

The game remained finely balanced, We continued to try and run the ball but the conditions led to a series of knock-ons and our scrum difficulties gave Gloucester pressure-relieving penalties and free kicks. On the other hand, our well organised and aggressive defence stopped Gloucester in their tracks time and again. As half time approached, Nick Macleod chipped quick ball from an attacking Sale lineout over the Gloucester defence, and Joaquin Tuculet was within inches of taking it for a score in the corner. Joaquin then ran back Gloucester’s clearance from the resulting lineout and a neat Scott Mathie dummy at a pileup fooled the Gloucester defence and won us an easily kickable penalty.  10-0 up at half time suited me just fine.

The second half began thoroughly predictably- Gloucester kicked off, we ran the ball from our 22 but knocked on, infringed at the scrum and Gloucester got off the mark. After one of Joaquin Tuculet’s delicate chip-and-gathers, Gloucester obstructed him, but Nick Macleod’s kick went wide. A missed touch then set Gloucester up in our 22 but they were repelled by some robust defence. We couldn’t break their stranglehold though, with clearance kicks going to their back three and coming straight back, one flat out, diagonal run from Charlie Sharples looking particularly dangerous, and our scrums generally ending with Gloucester penalties. Bringing on debutant Alasdair Dickinson, freshly back from  New Zealand, stiffened the scrum but five minutes later Henry Thomas was binned, Gloucester kicked the penalty and, with only a narrow 10-6 lead and half an hour to play, we faced ten minutes with a man down.

However, being down to 14 didn’t seem to stop us trying. Fraser McKenzie found a little bit of space after a strong Brady run and, most un-lock-like, put a delicate touch kick into the Gloucester 22. A Gloucester error gave us a free kick in their 22 and a bit of quick thinking almost gave us a try but, in keeping us out, Gloucester were caught offside and Nick Macleod made sure of the three points with just over an hour gone.

The game then became very loose and we overdid it big style, trying to run the ball from our own goal line. Gloucester nicked it and, before we could get organised, Henry Trinder was over. Fortunately the conversion was wide. As the game entered the last few minutes, Gloucester continued to press but created only one good attacking position, a lineout from which they were setting up for a match-winning drop goal. They were done for ‘not straight’ though and our scrum, which had improved with a series of replacements stood firm, Gloucester were penalised and Nick Macleod put the ball deep into Gloucester territory. We won the lineout and ran the clock down with some nice safe up-the-jumper stuff.

So what to make of the game? Good enough. Scrum still a worry and the back play a bit erratic at times. Defence mostly excellent, lineout pretty solid and nice to see us trying to play with a bit of style even in poor conditions or when a man down. I see Fraser McKenzie is official man of the match, and that’s fine with me, though I thought Hacksaw Sam was prominent too. And as for 19 points from six AP games in the World Cup period, I am very happy with that. Thank you to all the players and coaches, and long may it continue.