Three games for Glaws to get their defence right


Nicky Robinson

By Cherry Picker
April 14 2010

Player and coaches are agreed – Gloucester’s defence needs to tighten up if the improvement and promise shown in the second half of the season is to produce the desired result both now and next season. The basic facts is that Glaws need to be higher up the Guinness Premiership table now and in the future, and the good news is that everybody knows what they need to do to achieve that.

But, as usual, it’s easier to pinpoint the problem than it is to solve it.
Coach Bryan Redpath bemoaned the team’s defensive lapses that cost them a place in  the last four of the Amlin Cup in last weekend’s defeat at Wasps, and of course it’s not the first time he’s said that this season.
Nicky Robinson, whose kicking almost matched Danny Cipriani’s 19-point haul at Adams Park, agreed – he admitted that Glaws had let themselves down defensively.
There are many positives to take from the second half of the Glaws season – young talent coming through, experienced players returning to form, team spirit improving, tactics looking better – but Glaws are by no means the finished article.

Redpath, and the fans, would love to see some of the remaining problems ironed out in the final three GP games of the season, starting at Northampton on Saturday, London Irish following a week later in the last Kingsholm game of the season followed a fortnight after that by a trip to Worcester that could decide the Warriors’ relegation fate.
No easy games to see out the season, then, and if Glaws are to qualify for the Heineken Cup by finishing in the top six, they’ll need to win them all.

What a time to get the defence right.

Meanwhile, Fijian international flanker Apo Satala has decided to leave Glaws and sign for Sale Sharks – a move apparently influenced by his professional situation as a soldier and domestic situation as a husband and father.

Satala is a part-time rugby pro, his regiment based in Scotland and his family in the Potteries, so playing ror Glaws is hardly ideal from a geographical point of view, even though they were very keen to keep him as a vital squad member. 

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Three games for Glaws to get their defence right
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