Draw Again

  This was a game that I really wasn’t confident about. Would the team take comfort in how close they ran the league leaders, or would another loss recorded start to dampen spirits within the camp. With so much disruption on the trains you could feel that we wouldn’t enjoy the same crowd as we had for the Tigers game, still a decent turnout for a Sunday though, and the drummers kept the noise ticking over.

Any doubts I may have had pre kickoff were soon relieved as Irish enjoyed a good start. We had plenty of possession and as teams usually find, with us putting all the pressure on, the decisions were going our way. Creevy who is our top scorer of the season so far dotted down first as we were finally rewarded for the sustained pressure.

We were enjoying so much possession and territory you could almost feel the crowd getting restless as we seemed to make very hard work of gaining yards. The crowd were on their feet again after Loader was put over in the corner following a looping pass from Jackson only to be called back for a forward pass. Seeing the replays we couldn’t really argue, it was another unforced error and one that shouldn’t be getting made by someone of Jacksons calibre.

Thankfully Isaac Curtis-Harris was on hand to score on what felt like a debut, a dream one at that. He was everywhere in attack and defence. To be fair to Gloucester, you could see Skivington's handy work all over their pack. Irish got no joy at all from our attacking mauls and with the new law preventing early binds, Gloucester’s defence kept us at arm’s length for long spells, forcing Irish into fifty-fifty offloads and panicked passes. For most of the game, the backs didn’t click at all, they looked unfamiliar with each other, I felt Jackson wasn’t having any control over the game considering the possession we enjoyed in the first half. Maybe that was down to Phipps who looked lethargic and offered no positive impact that should be expected given his experience.

Looking to head in at the break two tries to the good, we did as Irish do and invited pressure on ourselves, Jackson had an age to find touch but booted it straight down the throat of the Glaws winger who ran infield and earned a penalty in front of the posts. In the space of two minutes our lead was cut to 8 points after another penalty from Hastings, giving Glaws a foothold going in at half time.

Early in the second half we grabbed back three points from Jacksons boot after a yellow card to Glaws centre, Atkinson. As in the past, we struggled to take advantage of the extra man, Gloucester actually turned the screw on us and did the damage through another rolling maul. Mafi was deemed to have brought it down and was sent to the bin.

Jackson split the posts with a long range kick but that would be our only action on the scoreboard for quite a while.

Gloucester hit back with another rolling maul try from Morgan who hasn’t seemed to have aged at all. With our lead cut to two points we found ourselves in the right part of the pitch finally and were going through the phases.

This would be swiftly undone with Phipps coughing up a telegraphed pass that was read by Rees-Zammit who sprinted clear for a length of the field try. Until then, we had kept Gloucester’s all-star back line very quiet, bearing in mind it was nearly an all international back line. Trudging back the length of the field after the intercept left many fans wondering if we were now out of this.

The change that many fans had been calling for finally happened. White was on for Phipps and suddenly, when we had ball, we actually gained yards. Hoskins offered himself up at every opportunity as did the ever present Albert and slowly we were working our back towards the Gloucester twenty-two. We coughed up the ball again but Meehans box kick was collected by Ollie who slalomed his way past Gloucester defenders, being brought down just shy of the line. Rogerson composed himself and had enough in his legs to pick and go for a try to bring us level. Jacksons kick drifted wide.

With only a few minutes left, both teams were very nervous not to lose but it was Irish who found themselves in the Gloucester half when the clock went red. In what seemed like a rushed decision, Jacksons drop goal attempt didn’t threaten the posts at all. It was a good representation of so much of Irishs back play, it was rushed and the execution was found wanting. Big shout out to Albert who ran himself in the ground and did heroic work at the breakdown. Isaac fully justified his inclusion with all round display. Ben White was fantastic when he came on, he brought the quick ball we’d lacked a game. Simmons was a willing carrier and made valuable yards in the few times the game opened up 

Issues were our forward play in the maul both in attack and defence. Seeing what Skivington has done at Gloucester really highlighted how short changed we’ve been with our new forwards coach. We can’t defend rolling mauls anymore and our attacking ones just don’t gain any traction. For me, I felt Phipps was miles off the pace and hasn’t justified his contract extension. White and O-Sullivan need to be our top two from now on. Jackson still doesn’t have enough leadership impact on games, especially when we have a man advantage. Leadership is still lacking amongst our experienced heads, we looked lost at times with no obvious plan of what to do with the ball.