Rested and ready for Bath

Cook Catch
By Cherry Picker
October 21 2013

Resting 12 stars for a daunting trip to thunderous Thomond Park was a very brave move by Nigel Davies. We'll find out how successful when we see how we do at ghe Rec this Friday and whether we can get a bonus point win against Munster in January ... 

We will never know whether the first choice first XV would have beaten a slightly lethargic home side. They have been taken to task by the Irish media for the way they earned their 26-10 victory - but that's no surprise.

 Nigel Davies is adamant he had not been interested in winning and is quoted as saying: "The only way to build depth is to play players in games like this.

"We created some good opportunities out there and I felt we did enough to get something from the game," said Davies.

"I am bitterly disappointed that we didn't, but at the same time I am very encouraged. I felt a lot of our inaccuracies were of our own doing."

 

It was indeed an heroic effort in front of 20,000 passionate Irishmen and only a late Murphy try stopped us getting something out of the game. Nobody would have argued if we had.

 

 

Munster: F Jones (D Hurley, 77), K Earls, C Laulala, J Downey (C Sheridan, 77), J Murphy, I Keatley, C Murray, D Kilcoyne (J Cronin, 68), D Varley (M Sherry, 71), BJ Botha (S Archer, 75), D O’Callaghan (J Coughlan, 66), P O’Connell, D Ryan (CJ Stander, 70), S Dougall, P O’Mahony (capt).

 Tries: Botha (34), J Murphy (68) Cons: Keatley 2 (34, 68) Pens: Keatley 4 (4, 9, 13, 66)

 

Gloucs: M Thomas (R Cook, 7), C Sharples, M Tindall, R Mills, J May, J Bentley (F Burns, 50), D Robson (T Knoyle, 60), D Murphy (Y Thomas, 5), D Dawidiuk, R Harden, L Lokotui (J Hudson, 50), W James (capt) , M Cox (G Evans, 40), A Qera, B Morgan.

Tries: Sharples (16) Cons: Bentley (16) Pens: Bentley (39)