A certain Stuart Barnes anticipated it as being a ‘stunner’.  There is a view on the Crumbie Terrace that opinions offered by Mr Barnes on rugby at Welford Road are always wrong; he was therefore bound to have cursed this game in some way.

Tigers selected Tom Croft, Benjamin Kayser, Geordan Murphy and Julian White all on release from international duty. Gloucester were without James Simpson-Daniel and Anthony Allen who failed a fitness test.

Tigers had the first attack of the game. A line-out in the Gloucester 22 saw Ben Kay win the ball for the forwards to drive over the try line but referee Barnes adjudged they were unable to ground the ball.  Some sloppy play by Tigers handed the ball to Gloucester who worked their way downfield where Tigers were penalized 40m out.  Olly Barkley, kicking downwind, had no difficulty. The play ebbed and flowed until a penalty was awarded against Gloucester for not releasing and Julien Dupuy brought Tigers level with his first kick at goal.

Tigers seemed to be beginning to get on top when the ball came free quickly and reached Sam Vesty in mid field via a couple of forwards.  He was very close to the Gloucester defensive line but there was an overlap to his left.  The fly-half tried a long pass to the outside but Iain Balshaw was in position to intercept and had a clear run to the line. Barkley’s conversion put Gloucester 10-3 ahead.  This did not reflect the balance of play and got the crowd animated.  From this moment on Gloucester offered little but dogged defence. The crowd and the Tigers’ players dominated.

A quickly taken but kickable penalty almost brought Tigers a try. The ball was moved right for Tuilagi to give the final pass to Croft who ran over the try line in the corner but referee Barnes correctly adjudged the try-scoring pass had gone forward.

Tigers were awarded a second penalty in range of the posts which Dupuy kicked. Gloucester were then caught offside as Tigers again attacked. Dupuy knocked over the penalty from in front of the posts to see Tigers draw within one point of Gloucester.

Tigers were well on top with half-time approaching. Another quickly taken penalty took Tigers to within 5m of the Gloucester line but excellent defence from the visitors prevented White and then Croft from scoring.

On the stroke of half-time Tigers attacked from their own 22.   Marcos Ayerza ran to the last defender, Rory Lawson, and made a good pass.  Lawson knew his only hope was to prevent the pass reaching Croft, he lunged, failed to gather and was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on. Dupuy kicked the subsequent penalty to leave Tigers 12-10 ahead at the break which was a fairer reflection of the balance of the game than 3-10 had been.  Tigers would have the wind in the second half so your correspondent felt fairly positive, the curse of Barnes notwithstanding.

Dupuy was given a chance to extend Tigers’ lead moments after the restart when Gloucester were offside but he pushed the long kick the wide of the right-hand post. The curse of Barnes seemed to be acting as the Frenchman was off target with two more attempts from similar positions as Tigers dominated possession in the opening minutes of the second half.  Surely Gloucester would be good enough to have their own opportunities later in the half and two points would not be enough.  

Tigers almost turned territory and possession into a try when Kayser and Murphy combined to put Croft away, but he was tackled by Balshaw just short of the line and knocked on as he hit the ground.  Gloucester were just holding firm as Vesty made a dart for the line. The pressure told and the visitors killed the ball and Dupuy made no mistake from in front of the posts to extend Tigers’ lead to 15-10.

It was all Tigers.  There was wave after wave of attack but somehow no try.  Gloucester could not get out of their half.  The Tigers scrum and line out was on top.  Then Gloucester played advantage, Barkley kicked up field and young wing Sharples was just winning the chase but as he collected possession he has to slow and was tackled into touch by Matt Smith.  It was to be the only real scare for Tigers.

A run by Hamilton got Tigers back into the Gloucester end. The ball was recycled and Tigers looked destined to score but Vesty’s offload did not reach Murphy as the line loomed because Alex Brown had tackled him early, for which he was yellow-carded. The resulting penalty saw Tigers 18-10 ahead.

The crowd went mad as Wentzel collected Tuilagi’s pass on the left wing and crashed over, but the touch judge raised his flag for a foot in touch.

Gloucester were pinned so deep that Carlos Spencer kicked high and deep.  Geordan Murphy caught the ball on his own ten metre line and had plenty of time to drop a goal downwind from inside his own half which gave the crowd something extra-ordinary to celebrate given that it was to be deprived of a try.

 As the last seconds ticked away Gloucester were still pinned deep and in their desperation conceded another penalty and Dupuy, with the last kick of the game made score 24-10.

The curse of Stuart Barnes had meant no tries for Tigers but the curse of Wayne Barnes on Gloucester had meant an easy victory for Tigers over the leaders of the Premiership.

Many of the crowd stayed on to see Julian White receive his club cap, only given to those who make 100 appearances.  It was the dominance of White and his forward colleagues that had ensured that Gloucester could not win.

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