Gloucester v London Irish LV= cup 5/2/11

As we all know what happened in the game, what follows is largely a ‘Warm-up’ report rather than a detailed match report. Warm-up is a great part of the match day experience – LI never lose and there is no stress involved!

As we all know what happened in the game, what follows is largely a ‘Warm-up’ report rather than a detailed match report. Warm-up is a great part of the match day experience – LI never lose and there is no stress involved!

We arrived at Gloucester and were on the West Terrace behind the posts just over an hour before kick-off. There were grey clouds but no rain (an unusual occurrence in my experience at Gloucester) although there was a strong wind. As Justin (‘the legend’ – as described by one of those with us) was rearranging the tackle bags, we discussed Ryan with Gloucester supporters around us who thought he was doing better with us than he had at Gloucester.

Ryan came out with Darren, passing the ball to each other across the pitch, getting a vocal response from the Shed as he came close to there. The pairings on the pitch were then Brian and Rob practising throwing in, Darren and Alfredo practising scrum half skills and Ryan kicking with one of the coaches, with Dan and Chris M also warming up. At about 2.15pm Neal called all the forwards and scrum halfs in. Ryan and Chris had a chat (maybe discussing how to handle the Shed) and then started kicking for the posts – Ryan got his first one and many others, although he got lots of ‘encouragement’ from Gloucester supporters when one kick went wide.

After about five minutes, the forwards and many of the other backs came back to the pitch. Steffon looked very cold as he warmed up with Nick and Richard. Dan was trying to make it harder for Ryan to nail his kicks, by leaning on the posts as Captain Maps ran round the edge of the pitch. JonR43 looked at Topsy in his tracksuit and said ‘You’ll tell me Topsy always looks like he is dressed not to play, won’t you?’ Justin and Neal were doing their academy manager and assistant jobs, working with Jamie G. and Max (Neal had to have two tackle bags for Max to practice with). As he ran on, George acknowledged the Samoan flag and shout of encouragement from BQFM. We were nearly hit by one of Ryan’s kicks – even watching warm-up can be dangerous – and then the two kickers each got a shot through the posts at the same time – perhaps LI could enter a synchronised kicking competition! The Gloucester team came out and ran round the pitch together to a lot of cheering from their support– is this something LI could do at home games?

At 2.35pm, our team got into a huddle and then split into starters and bench/stand by players to do sprints. Chris H must have been keen to start rather than be on the bench as he didn’t have a reserves’ bib on. Next came the ‘Hokey Cokey’ where the team stand in a circle and run to the middle on the call of the fitness coach. I always think there could be a major pile up in the middle one day and have half the team concussed before the game starts. The players then worked in pairs – lifting each others arms, ‘hugging’ and pushing each other – I am sure there are technical names for these training activities but I don’t know what they are. The players then got back into a circle to do stretches on their backs. At this point, Toby and Mike are just standing around watching. What goes through their minds at this point I wonder – last minute advice they need to pass on, wishing they were going to play rather than their work being largely done in the previous days, wondering how the game will unfold?

The next part of warm up involved the scrum halfs and wings/full back practising kicking and then catching the high ball and stepping (with Justin); the centres and fly-halfs doing passing and stepping (with Mike); the back row doing tackling and presenting the ball (with Neal); and the other forwards practising line-outs (with Toby).

The backs’ next activity was to do a starters v. bench passing game, whilst all the forwards practised line-outs and scrums. The backs then went into a huddle while Elvis was standing just outside the huddle, passing the ball with Justin. He does this every week and I wonder if he can still hear what the rest of the backs are discussing, but it must be a key part of his routine.

At just after quarter to 3, the whole team came together again and the starters played the bench in a sort of mini-game, leading from a line-out. Does this encourage the starters as there are more of them, so should find it easier to beat the bench? The coaches checked out the radio mikes before the team had another brief huddle and then practised with the tackle bags, going through two players with tackle bags and then into a third one. This involved a lot of shouting and the thuds could be heard from where we were standing. Steffon appeared to be supervising this week! The Gloucester team then ran past again on their way off and LI also left the pitch. By this time there were about nine LI supporters on the West Terrace and I had seen 3 or 4 others around as well. It was just past 2.50pm and things were going well!

If you were reading this hoping for a detailed report on the game, I am sorry but you are going to be very disappointed. Firstly, the score line was not one to make for good reading as an LI supporter and secondly, I am leaving the detailed reports to those who know more than me. (I was left asking after the game why we had done so badly and anyway half the game was played down the other end of the pitch and I could not see what was happening.) LI kicked off and then after some strong mauling from Gloucester which LI defended, we knocked on (even the Gloucester supporter behind us wondered how LI knocked on a ball they didn’t have. I would like to say however that we cannot blame the referee for the result even if we did not agree with all he said). LI won the reset scrum after this but our clearance did not work and Gloucester scored under the posts. Within three minutes, Gloucester were pressurizing again and scored in the corner. LI did get a penalty but Ryan hit the posts (the kick was from a way out and on a very windy day). This turned into Gloucester attack and in chasing a Gloucester player for the ball Losi knocked it out of play and got a yellow card for this (although the referee had initially shown the card to Topsy who pointed out that it was not him) and Gloucester got a penalty try. LI did then get 3 points back with a Ryan penalty after Maps had been taken out. Two minutes later, LI gave away an offside penalty after a knock-on and from the line-out Gloucester got their bonus point try. About five minutes before half time, Gloucester passed across the pitch after another line-out and scored their fifth try. At half time the score was 29-3.

About 15 minutes into the second half, LI attacked after Gloucester had cleared from our scrum which they had won, and Chris H went over for a try, making the score 29-8. (LI won the third quarter of the game!!) With less than ten minutes to go, Gloucester pressurised but knocked on and then LI knocked on from the resultant scrum, and continued Gloucester pressure led to their next try. Five minutes later they scored again and the game ended with the final score being 41-8. Warm-up had been so much more fun!!