Ooooh!

By Tykefalcon
May 13 2002

<p>Tykes played rugby for the first 30 minutes with Chris Hall going over for a try 15 minutes in, Braam Van Straaten kicking the conversion. Just 3 minutes later Tykes had missed a scoring opportunity as Braam Van Straaten and another Tykes player both went for the same ball close to the try line. Tykes failed to get anything from the resulting scrum on the 5metre line. Tykes were forced back into their own half, but must have learnt from Wednesday’s match as they came right back up into the Gloucester half, stringing together a set of passes which even the Sale backs would have been proud of. The move finally resulted in a Tykes penalty, which Van Straaten duly slotted to make it 10-0. After a sneaky Gloucester lineout (their jumper didn’t jump!) Tykes managed to get possession of the ball, and get up to within 10metres of the try line, unfortunately Tykes knocked on & the next 45 minutes belonged to Gloucester. 31 minutes in Forrester opened Gloucester’s account, benefiting from a lovely pass from Henry Paul. Bulls fans should be proud! Mercier converted, and slotted a penalty just a minute later, taking the score to 10-10. Paramore scored Gloucester’s second try just before half time (I’d love to describe it for you but I’d gone to get a burger!) “Ludo” again successfully kicking the conversion. Half time score: Tykes 10 – Gloucester 17 Jon Benson & JP O’Reilly came on at half time replacing Braam Van Straaten and Scott Benton, the backs shuffled round – Mulder went to 12, Scarbrough to the wing & Benson at fullback. Van Straaten had been on the end of some huge hits in the first half so his replacement made sense, but why Scotty came off I’ve no idea. To me it looked like Tykes were giving up. Gloucester dominated the second half. There are not many teams who have managed to make Tykes look hopeless at Headingley this season but that second half was not a pleasant one for Tykes fans. Gloucester came out revved up, they started with a brilliant run from Henry Paul, passing the ball to Albanese, Tykes just managing to cover. Gloucester racked up the tries in the second half with Woodman (the prop) going over first, however Mercier missed the conversion. Gloucester had to wait nearly 10 minutes for their bonus point as Dan Scarbrough put in a try saving tackle on Albanese, before Simpson-Daniel flew down the wing, Mercier’s conversion took the score to 10-29. I have to admit I stopped scribbling down notes at this point, Gloucester were on a roll, Phil Vickery came on much to the delight of the Gloucester fans and the tries just kept coming, O’Leary, Simpson- Daniel and Sewabu all going over Mercier slotted all the conversions. Tykes didn’t really get back into the game till the last 10 minutes their efforts paid off and Dan Scarbrough scored his 12th try of the season, putting him second in the Premiership try scoring table behind Mark Cueto of Sale. Benson kicked the conversion to make the final score 17 – 50. So all in all a bit of a damp squib as far as Tykes were concerned – maybe if relegation had been at stake then the match would have been different. As it was Gloucester were the team playing for points not Tykes, and in that second half they proved what a class act they are. All Tykes fans could do was sit back and enjoy the show, and come on admit it did you join in the “Sinbad For England” chant? That’s it! My first proper match report. Hope you like it, or if not at least tell me what I got wrong. A big thank you to “Auntie Pauline” the Gloucester fan I was sat next to, who very helpfully told me who all the Glaws players were!</p>