By Cherry Picker
December 9 2009

As the Guinness Premiership season takes a two-week pre-Christmas break, Gloucester are looking to their Heineken Cup double-header against Glasgow as an opportunity to get their form back on track, with coach Bryan Redpath calling for wins home and away against the Scottish side. But it won’t be easy against a side which is top of the Magners League – a position they hold, as Redpath points out, on merit.
A bad defeat in Biarritz and a narrow home win over Newport Gwent Dragons have left Glaws in limbo in their Heineken Cup group, but two wins can soon change that – and the same applies to Glasgow, who lost narrowly at home to Biarritz and away to Dragons.
Scotsman Redpath says that playing against an English club will give Glasgow more incentive, though it’s difficult to describe Glaws as an English TEAM when the squad is full of players from all over the world.
But he should know, and he’s getting his squad ready with that in mind. "I know what it's like as a Scotsman playing against an English side. They will be hugely switched on with a chance to scalp us," he told the Citizen.
But the win over Newcastle Falcons last weekend, and the manner in which it was achieved, will have done Glaws no harm and Redpath added: "We don't go up there with a mindset of 'we're out of the Premiership, we can relax'.
"We need to calm down and get our feet back on the ground. We've had two good results but that means nothing. I'm not going up to Scotland to be judged that we haven't played to win.
"It means a lot to me going up there. I'm not going up there to lie down. We have to go up there with no fear and a little bit of underdog status.
"We've not performed well enough over four months to justify anything else."This is about continuing on what we've built for the last six weeks - getting smarter and smarter, better and better.”
Hopefully his players will feel the same, though there is a problem in the back row where Akapusi Qera joins Andy Hazell on the sidelines after being concussed against the Falcons.
Jake Boer is still injured, so Alasdair Strokosch is likely to play at openside – a Scotsman against the Scots.
It’s expected that peter Buxton will play at blindside, so it’s Gareth Delve or Luke Narraway at No.8.   

Scotsman Redpath sets sights on Glasgow double

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 09/12/2009 11:52

Shedloads
09/12/2009 11:52

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