Gloucester v Tigers Match Report
By Duncan Keene
November 27 2011
Gloucester 14 – Leicester 19 “Tell me. How can that man be England’s fly half?” “Aimless.” “Clueless." ”Can’t even touch the ball down.” He’s missed another kick! Another one! England’s fly half?!? “Eeeyore”
I don’t think the chap in front of me was Toby’s biggest fan.
I love the Shed. Always have done. From my first visit as a teenager for a cup game, to our away premiership semi in the playoffs it’s been my favourite ground to visit. I love the way the crowd arrive early, chew the fat, sup some beer and renew friendships. I love the design of the stand, the low tin roof, steep sided, well positioned walkways. It’s changed a bit over the years, I remember my first visit as a child and my twin sister being a very rare female face in the crowd, even having to get taken by a steward to the directors box where the only female toilet in the ground resided! Now at almost half the crowd are female. I wouldn’t say the Shed’s gone soft, but it’s a lot less scary than it was. Is Gloucester really a different experience to following Tigers away in Bath or Northampton or to the Irish provinces? Or different to the visiting experience we offer week in week out on the Crumbie terrace or those ruffians in the Crumbie seats? Arguably it is. The aforementioned roof does crank the volume up when they get going and there’s sometimes an edge to the banter and some docker’s language about. But I’d recommend it to anyone. The other stands at Gloucester are the johnny come latelys, and seems to attract the boozers and prats, the Shed oozes longevity and houses proper rugby fans with good rugby values. Next year, go to Gloucester and stand in the Shed. You won’t regret it.
They’re used to winning. 22 home matches undefeated before their recent losses to Sarries and Quins. Wounded their feeling of invincibility. A feeling this year’s Tigers supporters know only too well. Perhaps that’s why the Shed was strangely quiet and subdued pre-match. Yes, they growled a roar out as the Gloucester boys warmed up, yes Mr’s Healey and Kay received some advice as they walked past, and of course the brave Bath fan amongst them was roundly booed to and from the bar. But this wasn’t the confident bear pit I’d visited before. In fact both sets of supporters were concerned about the match, Tigers fans expressing the opinion that Gloucester had the perfect backs to combat our perceived weaknesses of poor tactical kicking and a defence that has shown holes against counter attack ball. Some Gloucester fans near us were threatening to throw the towel in before the match had even started!
Gloucester welcomed back the excellent Olly Morgan, accompanied in the back three by Big Les Vanikolo and the highly rated Charlie Sharples. “Can you tell me..” asked my new gloucester supporting friend “why Charlie Sharples didn’t go to the world cup?”, “I think that was Rob Andrew’s decision” I replied to his delight. Trinder and Tindall were at centre with Freddie Burns and Rory Lawson at half backs. In the pack Nick Wood was accompanied by two players I’d never heard of; Darren Dawidiuk and Rupert Harden. James and Hamilton made up a strong second row with Qera, Stokosch and Narraway an all star back row.
For Tigers; Harrison still kept out Youngs, Billy Twelvetrees made a timely return to the centres and Skivington and Woods came in to the forwards for the injured Parling and Salvi. Castro rotated in for Dan Cole making 4 changes to last week’s starters.
The first half was a windy affair. From the confines of the Shed it was hard to tell which way it was blowing at first and it was only midway through the half that we decided Tigers were definitely up against it. Tigers started brightly and Flood opened the scoring with a penalty after turning the Glaws defence well with a clever kick (my opinion) ignoring an overlap, typical boring Leicester (my neighbours opinion). Gloucester hit back quickly with a confident Burns penalty. A trend that would last through the match. Some mid-half Gloucester momentum was halted by a holding on penalty, infuriating the Shed in to their first chorus of “you don’t know what you’re doing” we let them finish then had a cheeky response of “he knows exactly what he’s doing”. We started to revise our opinion as Gloucester stole in to the lead after two confusing decisions in their favour from referee Doyle. Firstly, gaining territory after Harrison tackled Narraway with the Glaws scrum retreating at a rate of knots and surely breaking several laws, then right in front of us a big Gloucester push with Wood completely unbound from the scrum saw Waldrom picking up from the retreating scrum and holding on. 6-3 down. In the cold and sober light of day, and watching the video back, I think Wood dealt with Castro’s threat very well at scrum time where the fairly even distribution of penalties was pretty fair, if barely accurate on a case by case analysis.
The half ended in limp fashion asHarrisonchose to poke the ball in to touch as Tigers had a chance to build some phases in the Gloucester half. No doubt thinking of minimising the loss in to the stiff breeze, but it stunk of a lack of confidence in our ability to break the gainline. Overall the first half saw a lot of big hits, defences on top and Burns winning the kicking battle in particular finding the corners well.
Half-time saw Ben Youngs emerge, not a man lacking in confidence. Immediately, a huge attempt at a dropped goal from Geordan Murphy served to illustrate the strength of the gale and how well Tigers had done to avoid shipping a load of first half points. Tigers’ were well in the ascendancy and two kicks broke their line. First Tuilagi chipped in behind the cherries defence and Twelvetrees earned a scrum, then Flood spotted a gap, grubber kicked through and touched down for the first try. Or did he?
The big-screen replay showed he was in acres of space, the ball bounced viciously right and his right hand clipped the ball. The first replay on the big screen looked a knock on, the second appeared to show little finger, ball and ground all in contact. The Gloucester fans seemed convinced. “That’s more of a try than the one’s Quins and Sarries got” conceded my neighbour. It was a very very tight call, and I could see it both ways, theTMO went against Flood and we were only rewarded with a penalty for our period of pressure. Seconds later, Burns was gifted a penalty by sloppy ruck work from Ayerza and the Cherry and Whites were back in the lead.
Flood’s tactical kicking was starting to find gaps and Tuilagi was inches from taking a crossfield kick under the posts. It was eeyore time instead though. A harsh penalty against Tindall gave Tigers position, immediately compensated for by a harsh penalty against the Tigers pack for truck and trailer, an error strewn period of the game as we entered it’s defining moments. Gloucester earned a great attacking position after two stunning Burns kicks. One long distance clearance and then a spinning effort in to the corner. Chuter held his nerve in the line-out and Tigers cleared their lines. End to end stuff and Tigers’ still losing at we headed towards the final quarter. Tigers bravely went to the corner rather than take on a long range effort at goal and were rewarded with a Matt Smith break off a sumptuous Flood offload. Quick ball from the Ruck and England’s No 10 gave a little show of the ball and darted through for the first try. A conversion you’d expect him to get 9 times out of 10 slipped past the post and kept Glos only 2 points behind. Hardly “boring boring Tigers”.
Immediately, what looked like a Gloucester mistake was trumped by a howler from Tigers. A pass fell behind Trinder and he hoofed it aimlessly midfield, from our position he didn’t appear to chase and the whole Gloucester team was offside. Not signalled by the ref, and Youngs made a blunder, a huge miss pass straight in to the arms of Narraway, the No. 8 running in from halfway despite the attentions of Flood forcing him wide. A position we really should have turned the screw from and yet it was Gloucester who scored. 3 points behind and 15 minutes left. Every time Tigers score they go down the other end and concede. Nervous times. Another big error gave Tigers what turned out to be the decisive lead, Trinder attempted to chip Tuilagi, the big man showing deft touch to gather the ball and rapid pace to outstrip the defence and squeeze in to the corner. Another 2 point lead that looked vulnerable. But this time there was no immediate comeback score. Tigers had a great chance to seal things as Youngs stepped through the defence and was held up just short. Skivington chose to pick and go with his scrum half trapped and didn’t protect the ball. There was an overlap on, but it wasn’t the worst option, many a second row has messed up the “easy” option of passing down the line, the chance would still have been there if he’d held on, dropping the ball was criminal though. Tigers earned a penalty and Flood converted his third kick of the day to make the lead 5 points and leave Glaws searching for a miracle try with time expired.
It was tense as they attacked, Jonny May dancing through the defence but getting caught. Tindall took the ball in to what looked like a run of the mill breakdown, but heroic defence from Agulla and Smith hauled Britain’s favourite drinker in to touch and ended the game. On the one hand it was an end to end match which Tigers didn’t lead for long and just happened to be in the lead of at the end, decided by mistakes and nothing to write home about. On the other hand, it was a strong performance from Tigers that could have been a more comfortable win, showing an ability to break from around half way but not quite taking their chances or maximising the points return. Gloucester had a surprising lack of creativity from their much vaunted backs, only scoring through their defence. They looked short on confidence and unable to respond to the Shedheads demands.
As for Flood, I do actually agree with some of the criticisms the Gloucester fan was making. Toby’s clearing kicks can be misdirected and often invite either a better kick or a counter attack. His 3 from 6 kicking ratio is concerning and with Youngs and Twelvetrees in the team we must start considering other options for the place kicking duties. But, why is he England’s fly half? Because in defence and attack he is superb. Almost all the creative moments in the game came from him, the cross field kicks, grubbers, subtle passes, taking the ball off his toes and making a gap. And making tackles in his channel and spectacularly as part of the scramble defence. Even his unsuccessful attempt at catching Narraway forced the No. 8 wide and contributed to a missed kick. Comfortably, my man of the match.
The travelling contingent kept our celebrations mooted, after our own recent home tribulations we know how it feels and there wasn’t any desire to rub salt in the Gloucester wounds. We knew it could easily have been us going home with only one point and we’re still very low in the table. Personally, I felt sorry for the Gloucester fans as they’d never have lost this game 6 weeks ago against our world cup ravaged squad. Who can trust a league table at the moment? Tigers then are up to 10th, we still need almost all these tight matches to go our way, but undefeated since the return of the internationals sounds good, if that run lasts to Christmas we’ll all be very happy. Come on you Tigers!
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:12:04:23:08:31 by Tiggs.
...
I'd take issue with Ben Youngs dropping the ball straight into Narraway's arms though, that was a good interception at pace from someone that had hidden himself away nicely.
...
Quote:Rich W
I felt that though it was risky the attempt to put the pass into that wide channel was a risk worth taking. People complain that we aren't attacking enough but that was an attacking option - whilst a long way out there was an overlap there and Narraway just read it well. If he hadn't we'd all be cooing about the vision and the sumptuous pass.
I'd agree with that. It was a 50/50 thing. Overambition (in those circumstances) by Ben and great reading by Narraway. Great chase by Toby too.
