Glaws fail to live up to the occasion

Perhaps in the circumstances, complaining long and loud about Gloucester’s performance as they slumped to a 24-18 Euro Challenge Cup defeat against la Rochelle at Kingsholm could be viewed as churlish or even unnecessary. But let’s face it, it was pretty bad wasn’t it?

If the first Kingsholm defeat in 13 months had arrived in a blood and thunder Premiership game with a lot more at stake few would have been so surprised – after all, unbeaten runs have to end some time.
But losing to a team they had beaten on their own ground a week earlier when they did more than enough in the game to win it is not on.
Did those circumstances mentioned earlier make a difference? Were the players affected by the emotional and very dignified pre-match respects paid to tom Walkinshaw?
Perhaps we’ll never know, but the game didn’t live up to the occasion.
A wasteful and frustrating performance ruined the day, and coach Bryan Redpath had every right to be angry with his inconsistent team.
He told the BBC: "We gifted them two tries, but we had a lot of possession, a lot of territory and we just weren't clinical enough around contact area defensively.
"In the first half especially I thought we were flimsy. We hit people, but we didn't stick and they spun out and certainly one of the tries at the end of the first half came from that.
"In the second half we had a huge amount of possession, a huge amount of territory, a huge amount of opportunities to create something, but we just weren't clinical enough from the start for some reason."
Putting his finger on the reason is the secret of successful coaching.
For the record, Lesley Vainikolo scored two typical tries, the third coming from Freddie Burns, but Nicky Robinson’s lone penalty wasn’t enough as La Rochelle replied with tries from Thomas Soucaze and Jonathan Garcia while Benjamin Dambielle kicked 14 points to emerge as the match-winner.
As long as Gloucester produce performances like this, no matter how infrequently, they will NEVER be as good as their ambitions suggest they can be.
It wasn’t awful, it wasn’t disgraceful … it just wasn’t good enough.
However, the pre-match tributes to TW were perfect – as we said, they were emotional, dignified and along the lines we believe he would have wanted.
Good luck to his family as they pick up the reins at Kingsholm – but what a hard act to follow.