Despite a half time score of 6-7, the truth is that Gloucester dominated the first half and although the introduction of Andy Long and Jamie Noon in the second half improved matters, they couldn’t help our Falcons to a victory.

The Noon situation was rather confusing as he was named in the starting XV at centre, wore 14 in the warmup and was finally on the bench as Joe Shaw continued in the midfield, this time partnered by Mathew Tait.  Captain Colin Charvis and Mike McCarthy returned to the back row, whilst Hall Charlton and Matt Thompson were also thrown into the side.  For Gloucester, of their England contingent James Simpson-Daniel was on the left wing and Mike Tindall a replacement, and Peter Richards and Andy Hazell started.

Although the visitors were on top for much of the first 40, it was Tait who made the first decent break in the Gloucester 22, but he was turned over once tackled.  Tom May was then required to mark in our right corner from an away chip with two attackers bearing down.  The first points could have been scored on the quarter hour when Shaw was tackled and Anthony Elliott taken away from the ruck, but Matthew Burke put his kick just wide.  Shortly after, our Aussie full-back had another opportunity from halfway and was more successful, for a 3-0 Newcastle lead.

Gloucester missed a penalty of their own before making the first score of the game, Terry Fanolua scoring from a big multi-attacker on the left.  Ludovic Mercier converted.  Burke then knocked another penalty wide of the posts, before Elliott looked to have scored a try for us from a Tait kick, but the ball hit touch in goal first.

Then in first half injury time May set off on a good run, with Burke carrying on the move until Gloucester were seemingly penalised for pulling down.  Burke it was who took the penalty and reduced the interval deficit to 6-7.

Our team for the second period included Andy Long and David Wilson, on for Thompson and Robbie Morris.  With Noon replacing Shaw within a few minutes of the restart, they made a difference as we competed better, although after 42 minutes Gloucester had a penalty for Charvis not moving away from a tackle but Mercier missed the first of two penalties in quick succession, the second coming after Elliott fumbled a big kick into touch, but the challenger must have touched the ball last as we were given the lineout but infringed in the maul.

Time for Noon and Grindal to replace Shaw and Charlton, and we began to attack Gloucester with more certainty.  Burke again missed a penalty in front of the North Stand, good accuracy being let down by lack of distance on 58 minutes.  Not long after he managed the reverse, getting the legs but not the direction.

We finally retook the lead in the 67^th minute, when we were fortunate because a good break on the left was brought right with two Falcons overlapping the ball carrier but no pass was forthcoming.  Burke kicked us 9-7 ahead, but Mercier restored the away advantage within minutes.  9-10.

Mercier was again on target after Burke had missed another kick, and at 9-13 with defences having been on top for most of the day again, full time was blown while we were still making a go to get to Gloucester’s line.

What went wrong today?  First off, I’d be interested to see our missed tackles count – it must have been a fair few, and that for me was one of the reasons we struggled to get a foothold in Gloucester territory.  David Walder’s kicking again wasn’t up to the standard we needed to get forward, just like at Irish he generally found touch when he went for it, so why kick ahead and just lose the ball so often?  The lineout was given a tough ride and, particularly in the first half, the scrum was creaky.

No time to panic though.  Two losses in twelve games is still good, and though Northampton climbed ahead of us into seventh with a Robinson-Spencer orchestrated destruction of Saracens, and Irish won in Bath, we must still be looking at the top 5-6 with four home games and three winnable aways left in the Premiership.

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