What the meejah says about the latest Glaws win
By Cherry Blossom December 19 2007
Shedloads takes its latest look at what the newspapers and websites are saying about Gloucester. We have trawled the sites for what we think are the most interesting clippings, and if a site isn't included in our list, it means they have said nothing, or what they have had to say was boring or irrelevant.
Shedloads takes its latest look at what the newspapers and websites are saying about Gloucester. We have trawled the sites for what we think are the most interesting clippings, and if a site isn't included in our list, it means they have said nothing, or what they have had to say was boring or irrelevant.
There were times on Saturday when Gloucester looked like slipping into old ways by being too loose. They were 23-6 ahead eight minutes from the end of the first-half when they tried to be fancy near their own 22 and conceded a try that gave Bourgoin renewed hope at a time when they should have been contemplating the journey home.
It was a mistake the home side learned from, and while the fly-half Ryan Lamb was named man of the match after scoring a try and kicking nine goals from nine attempts, it was the control the 21-year-old showed, something he lacked last season, that made him stand out. He was not afraid to put boot to ball and play for territory.
GarethDelve is simply relieved to be playing again after a sequence of injuries plagued his latter years at Bath. "It is the first time for a long while that a coach has had faith in me," he said of Ryan. "I am starting in big games, but after such a long and frustrating period out injured, there is a lot more to come from me. The potential at this club is huge and competition for places is fierce."
Perhaps, though, it was not so much that Bourgoin were not very good as they were made to look not very good by Gloucester’s all-singing, all-dancing team. Any team that does not tie in Akapusi Qera, who, as Lamb said, “has the gas of a wing and the build of a back rower”, are going to be in trouble against Gloucester. Likewise, any team that take their eyes off Lesley Vainikolo, the battering ram on the left wing, is going to be made to suffer. Gareth Delve had an outstanding game for the home side and cannot be far from the thoughts of Warren Gatland, the Wales coach. All in all, Gloucester are moving along nicely, top of pool two.
"I just want to concentrate on my rugby," (Ryan) Lamb said. He is certainly doing that, with a 100-per-cent kicking record and an interception try.England are indeed blessed with talented young No 10s, although when asked if, like Jonny Wilkinson, he spends hours a day practising his kicking, Lamb replied quizzically: "Hours?" He prefers life on the edge and off the cuff.Fijian flanker Akapusi Qera, another try-scorer, ate up yards in open play, while the hard yards closer to the coalface were made by Gareth Delve. The Gloucester No 8 has had a wretched time with injuries, but new Wales coach Warren Gatland desperately needs a powerful, ball-carrying forward and should get himself down to Kingsholm.
Gloucester are looking a nicely balanced side, with pace and power from one to 15.
If Gloucester were at times a little bit frantic and unnerved to off-load a pass here or there, Lamb remained coolness personified. He allowed players to run off him, he remained calm and calculated and trotted along with the sort of swagger we have come to expect.
It was another personal milestone because not only did he kick every one of his nine shots at goal, his precision and all-round subtlety was a joy as Gloucester claimed a sizeable and fully deserved victory.
Lamb may have been the one dazzling but there were other contributions that were equally sizeable. Gareth Delve had the sort of power-orientated game that marks him out as a different style number eight to the others in Gloucester’s stable, Akapusi Qera made any number of dazzling line-breaks and Olivier Azam was a physical menace – not only in the loose but also at scrum-time, where Gloucester thoroughly dominated.
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