By Chris Chaplin
May 8 2003

The end of another season apart from the various ridiculous playoffs and a new Champion club for the Premiership - Gloucester Rugby Football Club. Well done The Cherry and Whites, you and your supporters have waited a long time for this so congratulations. Now to the business at hand.

Without any doubt Glaws have been the outstanding club side in the Premiership this season and in particular in the pre-Christmas period when they were generally outstanding. Their performance against Saints at Franklins Gardens stands out as a highlight for me at least in a season where I have been somewhat underwhelmed by the standard of play that I’ve seen.

It is of course a travesty that unlike Tigers last year Glaws do not get a pot for achieving the very hardest of tasks, that of being the best team in England over nine months and 22 matches, unless they win a play-off. Were it up to me I would have Johnno present Phil Vickery with the old League trophy at Kingsholm on Saturday and establish a new tradition of it being passed to the new Champions by the old every year, regardless of whether they win the play-off pot or not as mark of respect and recognition of their achievement by their peers.

Gloucester were last beaten at Kingsholm in September 2001. I was there that day and saw a stunned and silent Shed watch a Tigers team in their pomp dismantle the Cherry and Whites with the finest of second half performances. Gloucester that day having established a comfortable lead at half-time just collapsed, how things have changed in the intervening twenty or so months. The Cherry and Whites now have that same “never say die” attitude that saw Tigers atop the pile for four glorious years and while their play faltered badly against Newcastle and Sale the team’s courage saw them through together with that cruelest of mistresses; Lady Luck, who for so long had her own seat at Welford Road before she left for the balmier climes of the West Country.

Last weekend a much changed side travelled North to Headingly where they met up with our opponents of the previous week; Leeds. With a dramatically weakened starting line up they slumped to 30-9 before some of the big guns returned and saw the Cherry and Whites through to a 30-23 defeat and a losers’ bonus point.

Sadly I don’t think that the Leeds’ match is anymore a guide to the result next Saturday than this current balmy weather is to a tropical summer.

With this being the last match at Kingsholm this season I expect a pretty much full strength Gloucester squad to be on parade, with only Chris Fortey (suspended for 12 weeks for stamping) and James Forrester (injured and also expected to be out for three months) sure to be missing. Last week’s injury list having been “precautionary” Ahem!!

So while I don’t expect the returning Phil Vickery to play a full 80 odd minutes he’ll make an appearance. I reckon the “maturing nicely” Andy Deacon will probably start in the front row with the fully recovered Trevor Woodman and Montferrand bound Ollie Azam. Ollie has become a real favourite of The Shed but frankly I think Chris Fortey is a safer bet, especially in the throwing in department, where Azam can be good but my he can be awful too. With Fortey out of the reckoning Academy player Chris Collins will be in reserve.

In the second row all the locks are fit but as Fidler and Pearce started last time I imagine that the first choice pairing of Eustace and Cornwell will start. Even the Kingsholm faithful have to agree that the second row has not been the sides’ greatest strength in this best of seasons and I must say that I do sometimes wonder about Cornwell’s play in the rucks and mauls. Eustace does tend to get himself into bits of bother and almost seems to over compensate for Cornwell’s lack of seeming lack of endeavour in this area. Of course with Azam’s sometimes woeful throwing any of the lock combinations will struggle in the set piece but if he gives them a chance they’re good enough.

With Forrester injured and Boer now having served his suspension a strong back-row of Boer, Paramour and Hazell looks likely. I like Boer tremendously and he has done a fine job as Captain in Vickery’s prolonged absence. The epitome of what a flanker should be I can’t think of him having a really bad game. Paramour has, I think, been carrying a bit of a rib injury for the greater part of the season and had Forrester not been injured Junior may not have started even now. He’ll be delighted to be able to perform though and he will, make no mistake about that.

Gomersall will resume his place at scrum-half and it will be interesting to see if he’s put his New Year dip in form behind him. He certainly had a difficult time in some matches in the second half of the season but if he’s back to his sharp best he’ll be causing trouble around the fringes. Half-back partner Ludovic Mercier is also off at the end of the season, back to his native France to ply his trade at Grenoble. There will be an emotional farewell from The Shed who’s chants of Ludo! Ludo! Ludo! have been a feature over the past few years. Mercier is such an improved player this season. No longer just a big boot who sits back in the pocket but a well rounded fly-half who has still got improvement in him. Some of the more dramatic Shedites say he’s better than Wilko! Well all I can say is calm down, he has improved, but not that much! He also hasn’t played anything like as well for France A as he does for Glaws but I’m sure that he’ll be putting a marker down once he’s back in France.

Perhaps the greatest revelation has been Henry Paul at inside centre which has now become his regular spot at the expense of that fine player Robert Todd. Toddy’s problem is that he’s just two similar in his style of play to Terry Fanaloua and it must be a fine judgement call by Melville as to whether Todd or Fanaloua gets the 13 jersey. The saying that there’s always a silver lining can surely never has been more appropriate than when applied to the set of circumstances that saw Paul have the most awful of games at full-back against Munster which itself followed some other horrors. It was always a mystery to me (and to be fair most other folks down here) why having bought a top class full-back like Delport he was persistently played on the wing, whereas the hapless and clearly unhappy Paul was in the 15 jersey. All is now well though. Henry Paul really makes the back line tick from inside centre and Fanaloua now finds himself in the kind of space that he only dreamt of when he was partnered by Todd and as a result he is able to run a much better line and not be forced to run laterally.

This of course enables those enfants terrible Garvey and Simpson-Daniel to be released into play. Sinbad has been a bit quieter since his return from sickness and injury, there have been flashes of his brilliance but he’s not been at his very best of late but Saturday could see him on form in front of his adoring home crowd. If he is expect to see that wonderful shimmy and feint. Garvey will also relish the chance to show off in front of The Shed. He’ll be trying to chip over Tigers’ defence and run down ball. He is immensely strong and fast but his step is predictable, operating as it does to it’s best effect only on one side and he does look hesitant when tracking back in defence sometimes. However with Delport behind him this does not cause too many problems. Delport is my man of the season for Gloucester. I think he’s absolutely superb now he’s back at 15. Secure in defence and while he’s not got that instant pace that would have made him a better winger once he gets moving he can really go and has a great eye for a line coming into the backs.

All in all they look, apart possibly at lock, to have it all and are just bursting with confidence.

Tigers on the other hand are something of a shadow of their former selves. Wracked by injury, division and uncertainty.

It is harder than usual to judge what Deano will do with his demoralised troops faced with this most testing of encounters just when the Tigers’ problems seem to be at their worst.

With little realistic chance of automatic qualification for Europe now remaining there must be the temptation for him to husband his meagre resources for the Wildcard nonsense, for while nonsense it certainly is it does still provide a lifeline into Europe.

If he gives the Glaws game his best shot I guess a front row of Rowntree/Chuter/Garforth is the strongest available and indeed they should be able to give the Glaws trio a good run for their money. At lock, in such a circumstance, Johnno would obviously start and while with the way Louis Deacon has been playing it would be tough on the lad if Ben was preferred I think that he could well be. This is an area where Tigers could have an edge especially if Chuter throws well and Azam doesn’t. Oh, and if we don’t throw to the back of the line in pressure situations. We’ve been at it all season with poor results. Johnno/Deacon/Kay are the bankers throw it to them - please.

In the back row; Backy told me after the Irish game that he would be available for next weekend and if he is and we’re “going for it” then he’ll surely make an appearance, although the excellent Will Skinner may start. I’ve been mightly impresssed with him. Joined by Corry and Balding the back-row should give a good account of themselves and frankly I don’t think they’ll be much to choose between the two trios.

At scrum half Harry has not had the very best of returns but I prefer him to any of the other options available but the forwards must protect him more and he must improve his decision making. No more errant box kicks to the opposition for instance. If Gomersall is still a bit below par then Harry may be able to get under his skin but if not then it’s going to be difficult. The problems at fly-half continue as they have since the opening days of the season. If Vesty is recovered then he’ll need to play. I’ve been enthusiastic to let McMullen have his chance and to be fair his distribution has been pretty good but his aimless kicking out of hand has been a real down-point to his performances. Mercier is much improved with ball in hand but with some slick handling (remember when we used to do that?) and a reduction in the use of that other ploy that doesn’t often work, the inside pass, there may be a gap or two and he can be contained in attack, although not with his boot.

The real danger comes at inside centre where Henry Paul will face up to Fred. Now we know Fred will run at Paul and it’s just possible that the faux Englishman will find Fred’s attention enough to knock him off his stride. But the danger exists that with his lovely hands and fleetness of foot he could run past an onrushing Fred and be into space. It might be useful to have little more subtlety in this department and if Rod is now history then Glenn could fill the need. Outside doubtless will be Leon. To be fair he ran some nice lines against Irish, made a lovely pass to put Stimmo in for his try and didn’t drop that many either. He’ll need to watch Fanaloua carefully though and look out for the long cut out pass from Mercier.

I’d be inclined to put Geordan against Garvey as the Gloucester man could find the Irishman’s guile a little to much for him and Geordan is quick enough and good enough defensively to neutralise the threat on this wing. On the other side I don’t see any reason to move away from Holtby. He played well against Irish, when he got the ball, and while he’ll find Sinbad a handful I don’t really see any other option as the England winger will probably turn Raynor or Fred inside out.

It was good to see Stimmo back and scoring a try out of the very top drawer but how fragile his kicking confidence looked. I could hardly believe it when in the dying minutes of the game against Irish he didn’t have a go at an admittedly long range penalty, with the wind behind him last years’ Stimmo would have gone for it. This year it was instead an unimpressive touch with an inept drop goal attempt to follow from the secured ball. Was there a plan? I do hope that our boy has had some TLC this week and is feeling happier with himself. We’ll need any and every point that we can get.

The outcome? Well of course Tigers could produce a wonderful performance and turn last week’s result on it’s head but frankly I can’t really see it, especially not against the new Champions at Kingsholm. So we the travelling support venture into the Lions den hoping for something special. Personally my hope is that we at least see a performance brimming with pride from our wounded Tigers but I fear that it’s going to be a loss and perhaps a substantial one at that if we’re not very careful. Hail to the Champions, past future and present.