Gloucester’s Form
Gloucester’s Form
Gloucester’s Form
By Andrew Collins
October 16 2008
Having already looked at the Cardiff Blues’ form going into Sunday’s Heineken Cup Pool 6 match, I take a look at how Gloucester have been getting on so far this season. Much like Cardiff, they have had some mixed results, but form has picked up of late.
Gloucester’s Form
October 16 2008
Having already looked at the Cardiff Blues’ form going into Sunday’s Heineken Cup Pool 6 match, I take a look at how Gloucester have been getting on so far this season. Much like Cardiff, they have had some mixed results, but form has picked up of late.
Gloucester got their season off to a poor start, losing the home match against Leicester, 20-8. It was a dreadful start to the new campaign for the Cherry and Whites, who looked out of practice and disjointed in every area. http://www.gloucesterrugbyclub.com/ said of the match;
"There were difficulties for them all over the field. The set-scrum was an area attacked remorselessly by the Tigers, the contact area was every bit as cluttered and messy as the Midlanders would have hoped for in their wildest dreams and the line-out also spluttered and wheezed."
But they put that dreadful performance to rest a week later, getting the victory over huge West Country rivals, Bath, 21-17 at the Rec. It was Gloucester's first win at bath's historic ground for 17 years, and interestingly enough, a game that Willie Walker started at 10, bearing in mind that their squad includes Ryan Lamb and Ollie Barkley. Despite winning the match, they were outscored in terms of tries by the home side 3-2, but 2 penalties, a conversion and a drop goal from Walker, as well as scoring a try himself, gave the Kingsholm side the victory.
The third Guinness Premiership match of the season against Harlequins was made to look a lot harder than it should have been. Having gone into the match as clear favourites, they scraped a 24-20 win against the Blues Heineken opposition of last season. Once again, it was the points machine, Walker, who kept the side afloat, 11 points from the boot including yet another important drop goal, something the Blues will have to expect all day long on Sunday.
"Gloucester are not functioning with anything like the alacrity we know they can but they did just enough here against Quins' cut and thrust counter-attacking game to take the spoils in another tight, tense afternoon in the Guinness Premiership."
They were then comprehensively beaten away at Sale, 23-9, with Ryan lamb at 10. A kicking master class from Charlie Hodgeson was the foundation for Sale, who were rarely tested by the travelling side, Gloucester being defeated for the second time from the opening four games.
Their final league match to date ended with a confident 5 try rout over whipping boys, Newcastle, with Jonny Wilkinson leaving the field after just 25 minutes with his latest in a long line of injuries. Ian Balshaw, moved to the wing after a series of mistakes at full back last term, scored a hat-trick, with James Simpson-Daniel adding the other two. The Glaws official web site believes that they are struggling to adapt to the new ELV's, with this extract sounding very familiar to the Blues' start to 08/09.
"Under the new laws they have searched for the right consistency of knowing when to attack and where and also when to kick. They have not done either well enough until combining the instinctive attacking flair of Iain Balshaw and James Simpson-Daniel, some outstanding off-loading from Olly Morgan and Matthew Watkins and a structured kicking game from Olly Barkley."
Since then they've kicked off their two Cup matches in fine form. Firstly, they registered an EDF Cup win over a watered down Wasps side at Kingsholm, 24-19, Lamb starting that game, before their 3rd home victory in a as many weeks, with a 22-10 win in the Heineken Cup over Biarritz. Fortunately for Cardiff, there was no bonus point for either side, and indeed Glos didn't really excel in terms of performance. The English giants were average going forwards, but did get the job done without too much hassle. Intriguingly, Lamb was preferred to Walker at the start of the match, with Barkley at 12.
Though their form has been somewhat questionable, much like the Blues', they have managed to turn out big performances when it matters. It appears both sides have struggled to adapt to the new rule changes, finding it difficult to know when to attack and when to kick for possession. The form of both sides has fluctuated pretty dramatically, Glos with their home loss to Leicester and sale away, Blues with Ulster at home and Calvisano away.
It's hard to split the sides in terms of momentum, Gloucester have won three on the trot now, but haven't travelled away from home since that Sale loss where they were not in the match.
Cardiff too have won their last three games, looking sharp in Italy last weekend, getting the result, albeit woefully, away at sale and the drubbing of Connacht.
But in all honesty, form will count for nothing come Sunday at 3pm.
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Gloucester’s Form
Posted by: theArmsPark.co.uk (IP Logged)
Date: 16/10/2008 12:37
Gloucester’s Form
Re: Gloucester’s Form
Posted by: cheerycherry (IP Logged)
Date: 17/10/2008 08:15
It is the balance between kicking and running that has caused Glaws' wobbles. The mix is slowly coming together and that is bringing their attacking runners into the game more than they were for the first few GP games. Glaws have not been set up for a forward battle for years and I expect a usual mobile Glaws pack to be selected to make use of the extra space at the Milly.
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