Gloucester Destroy Falcons

Look Woodward!
By Cherrybomb
May 19 2002

Gloucester destroyed Newcastle to pay back Rob Andrew in the best possible way. 9 tries came, and all were scored by different players. Phil Vickery's was the pick of the bunch which helped Gloucester win 60-9.

The reception for Rob Andrew was not that exciting, with a few boos. It was the roar that the fans gave the Gloucester players which really rubbed his face in it. There was only supposed to be 6000 in the ground, but the noise made was phenominal.

The match was live on Sky, and also was seen by Clive Woodward, which can only pose well for the England players of the future, Sinbad and Jambo Forrester. Both showed their promise for the future, with typically enspiring performances.

The match started pretty poorly, with penalty's from Mercier and Walder. Between those England star Jonny Wilkinson was carried off, unable to put any weight on his foot. His injury may take 9 months to heal, but England will hope that it is not that serious. Gloucester started storming when Toddy picked up and went over. You could see that Gloucester had the passion to win, when a maul which started on the 10 metre line ended up inside the Newcastle 22. The next try came when James Simpson-Daniel again broke through and again showed his strong relationship with James Forrester to send him over. The two players compliment eachover so well and often it is those two flying down the wings supporting eachover which result in Gloucester tries.

The next try was one of the best, when Sinbad was again the provider. He neatly sidestepped three Newcastle defenders and as they switched direction to follow him, him put a reverse pass in to Beim who had come across, and ended up with loads of space to cross. Junior Paramore, who has just signed another deal, also went over in typical fashion to leave the half time score at 26-3.

Newcastle would really have to play well to catch up, and didn't start too badly. Michael Stephenson looked certain to touch down his own kick, but Simpson-Daniel raced all the way from the other side of the pitch to make it first. For some reason Walder decided to kick for the posts to bring them 3 points closer. Gloucester of course took this in their stride, and were soon dominating again.

Daren O'Leary was the next scorer, but it was the next try which was the pick of the bunch. Phil Vickery, under the eyes of Woodward, took the ball on the 22 and stormed down the wing with two Newcastle players hanging on for dear life. He crashed over the line to eventually take man of the match. Ludo added more points to his already outstanding record, scoring a try himself.

Henry Paul, who had been having a reasonably bad game, broke through and showed what he is capable of with an unbelievable sidestep which left the full back stranded so he too was on the score sheet. He converted his own try.

Next was one of the funniest things you will even see in rugby. When Dave Walder restarts, hew stands at 90 degrees. As he went to kick it he hit it so badly that the ball went backwards! Laughter filled the ground to rub salt into the Newcastle wounds.

Terry Fanolua finished the story scoring in injury time. Towards the end of the match the whole crowd started chanting "are you watching, are you watching, are you watching Rob Andrew?, are you watching Rob Andrew" His face when this was being chanted would have made all the Gloucester fans feel the matter was closed as he tried to shut the crowd out.

A pitch invasion at the end ended a fantastic home season for Gloucester, so bring on next year, and bring on Leicester!

Final Score: Gloucester 60-9 Newcastle