Gloucester vs Leeds Preview

By Oopnorth
October 23 2003

One for the Girls? Oopnorth gives his views on the forthcoming game between Gloucester and Leeds at Kingsholm on Saturday afternoon.

One For the Girls?

What a weekend in prospect. Some people have spent all their cash going to watch Aussies bashing Pommies bashing Jocks kneeing Fijians when all they really needed to do was find the fare down to Kingsholm for a fascinating contest between Gloucester the team that never loses at home these days, and the Tykes who have yet to win away this season.

For a couple of teams more reknowned for forward play last season much of the excitement will come from the clash of, as Mickey Skinner would say, the girls in the backs. This is partly because the World Cup has stripped both clubs of some top forwards, but also because at the moment these are two of the most interesting and entertaining back lines in the Premiership.

For example, we should have sight of four wingers of true international clash scooting up the touchlines with Garvey and Rees showing the power and Scarborough and Simpson-Daniel the tricky running. Inside them we have the contrast of the handling of Paul making the breaks for Gloucester with the sidestep of Christophers doing the business for Leeds. Add to that some bone crunching tackles from Botham and the likes of Todd and it should be a rare old afternoon.

Spare a thought too for Ryan Walker who having seen the wing and rain in the last game at Headingley, now gets the chance to experience the one and only Shed. Let's hope he still wants to stay after this one.

Gloucester enter the game standing second in the league with 4 wins and 2 losses, whilst Leeds after a dodgy start have a reasonable 3-3 record and stand sixth. If the Tykes can continue their improvement and confound the tipsters we could see a top four place by the end of the weekend.

For all the entertainment value in the backs we know that packs and defences win games in the Premiership. Can the Tykes Pack now nearly back to full strength RWC absentees and Palmer and Rigney apart live with the ever lively awkward squad led by the likes of Jake Boer. Certainly the front row looks more solid these days and the line out more sorted. What we need from them is 80 minutes of sound rugby preferably the 40 played first half v Sarries followed by the 40 played v Tigers. That and strong defence. It is a telling statistic that Glos are the ZP leaders in terms of an average 9.4 breaks per match. We must push them hard to peg this feature of their game back.

Can we win? Gloucester can be beaten if you can get on top of their pack and pressure the backs. Good though we are in the try-scoring backs if we are to get much from the visit this is the big front-up for the pack this season.

Come on the Tykes.