Nick Wood - top 4
After the beast, it time for Glaws to swim with Sharks
Nick Wood - top 4
By Cherry Picker
February 24 2010
Losing at Leicester last weekend dealt a blow to Gloucester’s comeback ambitions for the season, but success against Sale on Saturday would do a lot to bring the smiles back to thousands of Kingsholm faces. Playing away to the Tigers is never easy, and Sale can’t be expected to arrive at Kingsholm with a white flag flying either, but it’s a very winnable game.
Nick Wood - top 4
February 24 2010
Losing at Leicester last weekend dealt a blow to Gloucester’s comeback ambitions for the season, but success against Sale on Saturday would do a lot to bring the smiles back to thousands of Kingsholm faces. Playing away to the Tigers is never easy, and Sale can’t be expected to arrive at Kingsholm with a white flag flying either, but it’s a very winnable game.
Glaws need to grab the chance to get the revival back on the rails.
One defeat doesn’t constitute a disaster, just as one win doesn’t constitute winning a title, but there were lessons to be learned in defeat at Welford Road, where Leicester more than lived up to their “beast” nickname.
Coach Bryan Redpath was asking for trouble when he stated before the game that his target was a top four place, but while we can question his timing, we have to salute an ambition no doubt fuelled by team performances since the turn of the year.
But he isn’t alone in aiming for the top four – prop Nick Wood has told the Citizen that he agrees with the coach’s target.
He said: "We're not off the top four chase. At the start of the season there was talk of relegation and people were writing us off.
"But that's just not the case. It was a transition stage, there were players in key positions we had lost but there were also guys coming in in those positions.
"We all needed to gel as a team. That's happened and now we need to take it to Sale and go from there.
"We're not going to get too disheartened by the Leicester result - if that was pre-Christmas we could have quite easily capitulated and suffered a 50-point loss.
"We're beyond that now and we came back into it in the second half when, had we managed a second try, we would really have been in the game."
As with Redpath, there’s nothing wrong with ambition – but it has to be backed up by performances and while losing at Leicester was no disgrace, it was still a defeat and it’s important that Sale are sent back North empty-handed on Saturday.
Sale are three points behind Glaws, but have a game in hand and will be keen to limit the home side on Saturday – the onus is on Glaws to overcome that and get that top-four drive back on track.
One defeat doesn’t constitute a disaster, just as one win doesn’t constitute winning a title, but there were lessons to be learned in defeat at Welford Road, where Leicester more than lived up to their “beast” nickname.
Coach Bryan Redpath was asking for trouble when he stated before the game that his target was a top four place, but while we can question his timing, we have to salute an ambition no doubt fuelled by team performances since the turn of the year.
But he isn’t alone in aiming for the top four – prop Nick Wood has told the Citizen that he agrees with the coach’s target.
He said: "We're not off the top four chase. At the start of the season there was talk of relegation and people were writing us off.
"But that's just not the case. It was a transition stage, there were players in key positions we had lost but there were also guys coming in in those positions.
"We all needed to gel as a team. That's happened and now we need to take it to Sale and go from there.
"We're not going to get too disheartened by the Leicester result - if that was pre-Christmas we could have quite easily capitulated and suffered a 50-point loss.
"We're beyond that now and we came back into it in the second half when, had we managed a second try, we would really have been in the game."
As with Redpath, there’s nothing wrong with ambition – but it has to be backed up by performances and while losing at Leicester was no disgrace, it was still a defeat and it’s important that Sale are sent back North empty-handed on Saturday.
Sale are three points behind Glaws, but have a game in hand and will be keen to limit the home side on Saturday – the onus is on Glaws to overcome that and get that top-four drive back on track.
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| 24 Feb, 2010 11:10 | Report |
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Shedloads (IP Logged) Unregistered User |
After the beast, it time for Glaws to swim with Sharks
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