Nigel Davies took charge of his first ever game in the
Aviva Premiership against Northampton at Kingsholm on Saturday. His squad had
plenty to prove and faced a strong Saints side looking to bounce back from a
disappointing 15-24 loss to Leicester in the semi-final of the Premiership last
season. Before the game kicked off, the crowd was treated to an exciting
entrance by six members of the Red Devils parachute regiment, who landed with
the match ball on the hallowed Kingsholm turf greeted by a hearty applause.
The first half
was dominated by the away side. Northampton forced their way downfield on
several occasions and used their driving maul to great effect. George Pisi
opened the scoring with an easy try after only 17 minutes. A flowing
counter-attacking move caught Gloucester off guard in defence and left plenty
of space on the left side of the pitch. Pisi strolled over for the first try of
the game and former Gloucester favourite Ryan Lamb added the conversion.
England’s Dylan
Hartley silenced the Shed as he collected a pass on the blind-side of a ruck
and barged his way in to the left corner past Charlie Sharples’ attempted
tackle. The try came from a period of sustained pressure, Gloucester initially
did well to hold Northampton back, but the Saints raised very serious defensive
worries for Nigel Davies’ side.
In attack, Gloucester
had some encouraging breaks with Charlie Sharples and Billy Twelvetrees making
initial inroads past the Northampton defensive line. Scrum-half Dan Robson was
held back trying to get to the back of a ruck and this gave Freddie Burns the
chance to open Gloucester’s account. The former Bath academy fly-half made no
mistake and got Gloucester on the scoreboard.
Northampton
again pressed the Gloucester line, but player/coach Mike Tindall made a
thumping tackle to force a penalty for the home side. However, Tindall then
turned hero to villain in a matter of minutes as he infringed at a ruck. Lamb
added a simple penalty pick and stretched Northampton’s lead to 11 points at
half-time.
The home side
came out positively in the second-half after a team talk with Nigel Davies. The
Cherry and Whites forced an early turnover and Soane Tonga-uiha was caught
offside trying to catch Twelvetrees. Burns was successful with his kick at
goal.
One of the best moments of Gloucester’s performance soon followed. James
Simpson-Daniel collected a pass from Burns and chipped ahead with the precision
normally associated with a World-class fly-half. The winger then collected his
own kick and surged forward to just outside the Northampton 22 metre line.
Another few phases followed from a resurgent Gloucester side and the Saints
gave away a penalty under heavy pressure. Burns closed the gap to five points.
George Pisi went over for his second try as momentum once again shifted
back in Northampton’s favour. This gave the Saints a comfortable lead. As with
Pisis’s 1st try, Northampton narrowed Gloucester’s defensive line
and some simple, but effective passing put the Samoan in for his second score
of the day. Lamb added the touchline conversion to make the score Gloucester 12
Northampton 24 with less than half an hour left in the game.
During his Kingsholm tenure, Lamb was infamous for his inconsistency,
and this proved true again in his visit wearing a Northampton shirt. The fly-half missed an easy penalty from just
outside of Gloucester’s 22 metre line. This could have cost Northampton dearly,
it certainly made the final quarter more difficult than it needed to be.
Lamb’s miss gave Gloucester a much needed boost. The comeback began
with a clever interception by Freddie Burns; he picked off a pass in his own 22
and had to run the length of the pitch. However, the playmaker realised he
didn’t have the pace to make the line and he slowed down looking for support
from Twelvetrees. His pass was stopped by a Saints hand and the visiting side
were fortunate not to concede from the earlier poorly-timed pass.
Gloucester put Northampton under immense pressure; however, they
could not put together the final scoring pass. Burns produced a clever chip,
but it came to nothing. A series of offsides at the breakdown resulted in Dave
Pearson giving GJ Van Velze a yellow card. This put Northampton down to 14 men
and Gloucester had a commanding position with a 5 metre scrum.
The home side destroyed the first scrum and won the first of many
penalties. The second scrum was re-set and was followed by another penalty. One
further penalty followed and Paul Doran-Jones, formerly of Gloucester was sent
to the sin-bin to the delight of the home crowd. Another man down, Northampton
could not cope with the pressure from Gloucester’s full scrum and Dave Pearson
finally blew his whistle and went under the posts for a penalty try. Burns added
the easy conversion to bring the home side within five points with 8 minutes
remaining.
From the kick-off, Gloucester spread the ball out wide to Henry
Trinder and the young centre put in a fantastic clearance kick. A quick kick-chase
forced Ben Foden to hurry his clearance. From the resulting line-out, Big
carries from Ben Morgan and Sione Kalamafoni stretched Northampton to breaking
point. However, Jonny May lost the ball with the try-line beckoning.
Gloucester pushed for the score that would tie the game with the
opportunity to win the match with a conversion, however, the Cherry and Whites were
not clinical enough. Knock-ons and other simple errors cost the home side the
chance of a victory. Dave Lewis looked to pin Northampton back in to their own
22, however, his box kick was too long and it went out on the full.
Gloucester still had one more opportunity to win the game; they were
awarded a penalty and had enough time left on the clock to kick the ball into
Saints territory. Burns just about made touch as he got cramp in rather dramatic
fashion. The home side then lost the ball forward and the chance of an unlikely
comeback went with the blast of the final whistle.
Full time: Gloucester 19
Northampton 24.
Man of the match: George Pisi
(Northampton) The centre finished off two tries clinically and put in a
fine defensive performance.
After the game, I spoke
to Gloucester’s new Director of Rugby Nigel Davies:
‘When they had their
opportunities they took them very well.’
‘They deserved that lead at half time, but I’m disappointed because
we came back so well in the second half and had a chance to win it.’
‘We’ve only been together for three months, it probably showed there
in the game and we grew a bit as a side in the second-half.’
‘The positive thing from my point
of view was that we weren’t really in that game in the first-half, but we came
back in to it.’
‘We just weren’t clinical enough.’
Northampton’s Jim Mallinder seemed relieved to come away with the
win:
‘I think in the end, we were lucky to win.’
‘The team spirit was really good to hang on there with 13 men for 10
minutes.’
‘We overplayed at times and got in to trouble. That put pressure on
us.’
Mallinder was very encouraged by his new centre partnership, ‘Dominic
Waldouck and George Pisi are going to be a great pairing in the centre’.
The Northampton coach was thrilled with Tom Wood’s first full
comeback game after being plagued with injury last season. ‘I’m delighted for Tom Wood that he played a
full 80 minutes, we’ve not been overplaying him in pre-season. We’ve been
cautious with him. We are really pleased he is back and playing well.’
A fine effort from the home
side in the 2nd half could not overcome a determined Northampton
side. Even when the Saints went down to 13 men, Gloucester could not find the
scoring pass to close the game out. Poor defence in the 1st half
cost Gloucester dearly. Nigel Davies has plenty to work on with his new side
ahead of his next game. Jim Mallinder on the other hand will be very happy to
sneak an away victory even when poor discipline looked to have cost his team
dearly.
Where you at the game? What did you think of your
team’s performance? Comment below, or tweet/follow me on twitter @tommyd91.
