CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL PREVIEW

Mascot Sevens
By Cherrybomb
June 6 2002

The Zurich Championship Final, the grand finale to the season, will take place on Saturday, and it will be a time to party for Gloucester and Bristol fans ahead of the showdown, with a party atmosphere and a mascot 7 aside tournament.

In the Zurich village there will be a fairground atmosphere with players from all of the 12 Zurich premiership clubs around signing autographs, as well as games and music to keep the travelling fans happy. Around 35,000+ fans are likely to watch the match, but with coach problems and a double bank holiday during this week, it will not be easy for everybody to get there.

The club are trying to get together as many coaches as possible, but the fans who can make it will certainly enjoy the day. It is recommenced that you set off early to avoid the large amounts of West-Country traffic travelling down the M4.

The mascot 7 aside tournament has been criticised by many fans as it is too cheesy. Gloucester were told that they would have to come up with a mascot for the tournament but it looks as if the club has refused, so there could be some controversy come kick off! It will be enjoyable for the young ones though, so hold off the booing until the Bristol team come out.

Gloucester haven't reached a Twickenham final for 12 years, and broke their semi-final curse last week with a 33-11 victory over Sale. Bristol managed to edge their semi-final over Northampton with a narrow victory, Filipe Contempomi scoring all the points for our rivals, including 2 tries.

The only real injury worry for us is James Simpson-Daniel, who is certain to miss the match with bruising to his ankle. They rest of the team is pretty strong, with worries over Andy Gomarsall and Ludovic Mercier dismissed. However after a long, hard season, the players are certain to be tired, much like the wallets of Gloucester fans who have had to fork out a fair bit of cash this season to get to all the matches!

Bristol don't really have any injury worries, and they looked less tired at the end of their match. Dean Ryan looks likely to start with the same team as on Saturday.

To win silverware this season would sum up the efforts of the players, and after Andy Keast left at the beginning of the campaign, things looked like they were going to go the same way as the season before, but Phillippe Saint-Andre kept the team together and clever signings seemed to keep the momentum going, only poor away form kept the Cherry-And-Whites from the top of the table. Then came Nigel Melville, who took over the reigns as coach. The team started to look up then on and finished 3rd in the league, setting up a playoff quarter final against rivals Newcastle.

A fantastic whipping of the men in black saw Gloucester through, and rubbed salt into Rob Andrew's wounds after he apologised for making allegations against Olivier Azam. This set up another semi-final against Sale, again away from home. This time Gloucester did the business though, and set up the final against Bristol.

Bristol finished a lowly 8th in the Premiership, and the only way they would get into the Heineken Cup would be to reach the final of the Zurich Championship. Because they finished so low they were faced with the near impossible task of beating Leicester at home. They did, and they ripped apart the Tiger's 4 year unbeaten-at-home run to earn a semi-final against Northampton at home. They beat them to meet us in the final.

Prediction: I predict that although Gloucester are tired after a long season, their desire to win a final will be too great and we will rip them apart in the front five like we did against Sale. It won't be a walkaway though, and expect good performances from the Bristolian's Argentinians.

Predicted Score: Gloucester 27-19 Bristol

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