Easy win for Gloucester

Gloucester won a one-sided match at Kingsholm yesterday against a strong Falcons team that just never got going.

Bar Warren Fury and a front row of Rob Vickers, George McGuigan and Scott Wilson, the Falcons had out a team that could be considered pretty much first choice, with Alex Tait, Adam Powell, Ryan Shortland, Dom Barrow and Ally Hogg all returning to the starting lineup.

James Hudson wasn’t in the Gloucester team but another former Falcon was on the bench in Rupert Harden, alongside former All Black Jimmy Cowan.

The early stages were competitive in midfield but it was Gloucester’s backline who clearly had the extra yard of pace. Mike Tindall and Martyn Thomas led the charge and it was from a flowing move across to the left that Rob Cook found the gap in the away defence to score the opening try in the first few minutes. Freddie Burns converted.

The Falcons offered little in terms of glitter and looked for dominance in the scrum, but Gloucester were strong there and also won the battle of the breakdown through a speed and aggression that the visitors could not match. Rory Clegg got Newcastle back into the game with a penalty from a scrum on the right but Gloucester pegged their opponents back for much of the rest of the half.

After Ryan Mills was stretchered off, James Simpson-Daniel followed on the half-hour with what initially looked to be a bad neck injury, but later seemed to be on the leg. Whatever, some of the Shed faithful were not slow in letting the medics know that they wanted the stretcher on more quickly. An ambulance was seen at the corner of the ground, but hopefully neither injury is too serious.

Burns knocked over another penalty to return Gloucester’s lead to seven points, and then at the end of the half referee Gwyn Morris lost patience with the front rows and sent Shaun Knight and Rob Vickers to the sin bin.

Things didn’t get any better for the Falcons in the second half with an early penalty by Burns taking the hosts further away. The second 40 were pretty bleak from an away point of view, with little action in the Gloucester half.

When the replacements came on, Kieran Brookes and Scott MacLeod were a bit livelier than their predecessors but Gloucester were simply too strong and continued to push the Falcons back. Only solid defence and handling errors from the home side kept the score down.

The win was sealed when man of the match Tindall charged down Mike Blair’s kick and raced in unchallenged on the left. Burns converted to make the score 20-3.

In the final couple of minutes the Falcons rallied and finally put some pressure on in the Gloucester 22, but the hosts were resilient and kept their clean try sheet after a pretty forgettable game.