Morgan - promise

By Cherry Picker
August 29 2012

It's time for the talking to stop and the real action to begin as Premiership rugby returns and Gloucester attempt to restore a reputation which, while it may not have been tarnished, has certainly takena few knocks over the last few seasons.

Basically, as a club Glaws have been underperforming and the same could probably be said about a number of individual players, too.

But with the young talent available at Kingsholm, a new coach and a handful of promising new signings (we’ll decide how good they are in a few weeks), there must be promise there for a return to something like what cherry and white fans are used to.

The season starts at home to Northampton Saints, a 3pm Saturday afternoon kick-off that will bring back memories of when ALL games started at that time.

Hopefully the performance and the result will revive a few memories, too.

The biggest word in sport, of course, is “if”, but IF Gloucester’s old hands can steer relatively clear of injuries and produce the form we know they are capable of, IF the youngsters can continue their recent progress, IF the new players are as good as they should be and IF the new coach fulfils his promise, Glaws can win things this season.

We know youngsters like Jonny May (right), Freddie Burns and the rest can play, and old hands like JSD, Andy Hazell and skipper Jim Hamilton have nothing to prove.

Of the new boys, Billy Twelvetrees has shown pre-season promise, but what of ex-Dursley England No.8 Ben Morgan? He has done it for Ospreys, can he do it for Glaws?

Nigel Davies says the Glaws scrum can build winning platforms even against the likes of mighty Northampton and he told the Citizen: "We've got a strong scrum, and we'll go after them.

"I think there's a bit of kidology about some aspects of certain teams as well, and teams play on that.

“I believe we have a very good scrum. It's a big challenge for us, but we're going to go after them.

"They've got a good scrum also, they've looked to dominate at set-piece and it's a big part of their game and we've got to be up for that challenge.

"We want our forwards to work hard, but we want them to work hard in the right areas.

"We've got to make a little bit more of our pack, people haven't rated our pack over the last couple of years, and we want to make sure they do.”

Davies rightly points out that while Glaws are a developing squad who have been together under his guidance for only three months, Saints have been developing for three years.

Time difference like that can make a huge difference.

We will hopefully have a clear idea of what we can expect over the next nine months by 5pm on Saturday.

Glaws up against that huge word .... IF

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 29/08/2012 11:17

Shedloads
29/08/2012 11:17

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St Marlowe
30/08/2012 23:47

and for the cogniscenti our match preview is here

David L

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

- Live wrong and preposterously

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