Freddie B - 13 points

By Cherry Picker
October 1 2012

Two wins and a draw in three Premiership away games for Gloucester, and all of them inside the first month oif the season -- not bad going for a team that spent so many months suffering from acute travel sickness last season.

Nigel Davies and his backroom team, as well as the players of course, have wrought some sort of rugby miracle at  for the cherry and whites as a team which used to be easy meat for most sides playing at home has suddenly become very difficult to beat.

Freddie Burns is taking a lot of the headlines with his impressive progress at fly-half, but it’s a team game and many others deserve their share of the credit for wins like Sunday’s 31-25 success at Oxford Welsh.

“I was really pleased with the first half performance, but then we lost a bit of shape and structure, and when you do that you are going to come unstuck,” Davies told the BBC.

“A lot of sides will come unstuck here and right now, in the progress of this team, an away win was very important to us.”

With 13 points, Burns again had a major impact on the game and Davies added: “The fact he has been able to mature at this level for a couple of years has certainly helped him.

"As a 10 it's not all about you, it's about the team and how you run the team and he is starting to do that for us now.

"A game like this can be very difficult for you if you don't get it right at No. 10. For large parts of the game he controlled the game, put us in the right areas and he was a constant threat.

"His goal-kicking is improving all the time and his out of hand game management and kicking is excellent at the moment too, so he is really maturing."

So is the team.

Burns kicked eight first-half points, with tries coming from Shane Monahan and Tom Savage

But Welsh repolied after the break with three penalties from Gordon Ross, who had also scored three in the first half, and a try from Franck Montanella.

But Burns, with a little help from Billy Twelvetrees, kept the points ticking away and a try from Shaun Knight did the trick.

Welsh have not been the soft touch many expected this season, so winning there is a real bonus for Glaws, whose fans will no doubt be sorry to see Bryan Redpath’s Sale at the bottom where many expected Welsh to be at this stage of the campaign.

Glaws, meanwhile, just keep on improving, just in time for the Bath derby at Kingsholm next weekend – the last Premiership game before a two-match European break.

Have Glaws cured their travel sickness?

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 01/10/2012 15:30

Shedloads
01/10/2012 15:30

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