Put coldly, Gloucester scored 46 points to Harlequins 6. In doing so they scored six tries aided by a referee whose error count substantially exceeded that of Quins. This was officiating which would have disgraced a Third XV match in London 3 South!  It undoubtedly had a deciding and adverse influence on the match.

Gloucester has a big powerful pack and the pressure they exerted at the scrum brought penalty after penalty, despite the fact that they were persistently boring in so that the pack was crabbing sideways.  With little possession as a result, Quins were living on scraps and the error count rose accordingly. From the first scrum, after barely one minute, Quins were in difficulties.  But though they retained the ball they were penalised for not binding.  Robinson slotted the easy kick to open the scoring. Quins were penalised for a similar offence a few minutes later and then were further penalised for going offside in their own twenty-two and the score became 6 - 0.

Then from a scrum on the twenty-two, Gloucester broke away through Delve in a move that saw Vainikolo force his way over unstoppably from close range. Robinson duly added the extra points to increase the lead to 13 – 0.  Quins fought back and in the next ten minutes Evans took the opportunity offered to kick two penalties, the first going in off the post.  Further Gloucester attacks were staunchly resisted and Simpson-Daniel was put into touch just a couple of metres short of another score.  Tiesi came off the worse for wear after a tackle on Vainikolo and was replaced by Sam Smith with Lowe moving into the centre.

With less than five minutes of the half remaining and Quins still well in the game came the try that virtually took the game away.  A chip into the corner was contested between Strettle and Vainikolo in the course of which the Gloucester winger clearly knocked the ball forward.  The ball crossed the try-line and the centre, Molenaar, touched down and the try was awarded despite the clear knock-on that must have been visible to the officials as it was to half the spectators present.  A disappointed Quins side went down the tunnel for half time with the score 18 – 6.

In the first ten minutes of the second half the whistle scarcely sounded except to award penalties against Harlequins.  Four went against Quins as Gloucester gained in confidence and whatever Harlequins did was wrong.  Then from abundant possession,

Gloucester began to move the ball slickly from hand to hand and eventually created a three man overlap which allowed Simpson-Daniel to finish a fine try and Robinson added the conversion for 25 – 6.

The refereeing continued to be a cause for concern with almost every interpretation being decided in favour of the home team.  When the ball was ripped from a Harlequin grasp and dropped by a Gloucester player, the event was adjudged to be Harlequins having knocked on.  When a Gloucester player failed to release after a tackle with Quins forwards on their feet, Harlequins were penalised for hands in the ruck!  Then an attempted grubber kick from Nick Evans rebounded from a Gloucester player and fell in the path of Tom Voyce in an offside position as he gathered the ball and cantered in under the post for the try to be awarded despite the clear offside.

Worse was yet to come as Quins tried to force the game to redress the balance and their errors compounded the misery.  Whatever they did went wrong .With Quins on the attack barely five metres from the Gloucester line, Delve, in an offside position intercepted a pass and took off for the Quins’ line passing suspiciously forward to Simpson-Daniel who scored under the posts. Final Score was 46 – 6. 

Kingston and The Press

After the match John Kingston had a hard time restraining himself from criticism of the referee, who had earlier in the season been the subject of an intemperate outburst from Brendan Venter.

"We have been stung there by crazy individual errors. You could play that game 10 times and that would not be the way the scoreline would be. We couldn’t quite finish chances that we had.” he said. “We did lots of very good things going forward.  We had several opportunities and worked extremely hard to generate pressure and momentum and couldn’t nail the final pass.

“Set against….. frankly, it was Christmas wasn’t it?  Interceptions, charge downs, loose passes being thrown that they grabbed hold of. Frankly, key decisions going against us when the game was tight.  I have to say that.  It may seem obvious on the scoreboard that it was a hammering and it is. 

“But I have to say that there were certain occasions and moments in the game that had the decisions gone the way that I interpreted, possibly shouldn’t have been. I can't believe, for the life of me, that Gloucester's second try was awarded," Kingston said.

"That was right on half-time at 13-6. There was a knock-on, which everybody in the ground saw, and, at that point, Harlequins were well and truly in the game.

“We brought problems on ourselves by conceding a try straight through the middle where nobody laid a glove on the guy.  That is not acceptable.  I actually thought, curiously, that some of our defence was very good at times. But we then got a try disallowed for a forward pass which, if it was forward, then fair enough,  but it was about as forward as a try they had when a guy popped it to them.

"Cleggy (Rory Clegg) throws a pass on their line, the guy (Gareth) Delve is about two yards offside, he intercepts and they go the length of the field."

"I am not going into a public discussion about the officials. I have just said to you that it does not take a rocket scientist to work out that, if somebody knocked a ball on and a try was given, that's a fact," he added. "Fact - the guy knocked it on and a try was given so there you go.”

Kingston went on “Look you are playing at Kingsholm in front of 13000 or 14000 people.  That is Chris York’s first match in the Premiership, it is James Johnston’s first start in the Premiership.  Lewis Stevenson doing a job in the middle of the lineout when he is a front of the lineout jumper. Luke Wallace plays his first Premiership game, comes off the bench.  George Lowe is doing remarkably well this year considering how much rugby he is being asked to play. 

“I feel very sorry for these players.  They didn’t deserve that for their effort today. There have been occasions when performances have been poor, Cardiff in the Heineken Cup for instance.  I was the first person to be forthright about it. 

“It might sound really odd but there were a lot of things positive about that today. There was an awful lot of naivety in the way we presented opportunities for people. There was very little between the sides and decisions went against us.  We knew the first try in the second half, because of the decision just before half time at 18-6 was going to be key.  It was tough. It really was tough.  Nothing more difficult or problematic could have happened to the boys today.

“Looking forward, the key thing is how we react to this situation. We haven’t lost a Cup Final.  We are not performing at the moment.  In the league we are not going forward.  As things stand, it is not looking as though we are going to make the top six. But we can change that.  We have nine games to go, five at home. We have got to see how we react to this adversity.

“There’s a lot of emotion downstairs. There’s a lot of frustration downstairs. But we have to work our way through that and put on the pitch next week, against Northampton, a performance to be proud of.

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