News: Aviva Premiership Saints 16 v 18 Gloucester
By Bonso
February 27 2011
Gloucster visited the Gardens on a cold, blustery February afternoon to take a bite out of the Saints. This latest sport has seen the GBG lose 5 games on the bounce this year. Boonso - and it's a while since we heard from him, saw the match and bravely put the following report together.
Aviva Premiership Round 15
Saints v Gloucester
Saturday 27th February, KO 3pm
Franklin's Gardens
Sainst 16 Gloucester 18
HOW DO YOU GET OUT FROM AN ALL TIME LOW?
Well I guess Gloucester wanted it more.
The pitch was probably the wettest I have seen at the Gardens for a long
time and looking at it I thought it was not a day for running searing
high octane Rugby. I was mostly right. What we got was a wholehearted
contest that was really decided by whoever made the least mistakes.
Saints were quite bright in the early exchanges going ahead by a Myler
penalty which really should have been a try if Powell had used his
options out wide rather than going for glory himself.
Gloucester came right back at us nearly crossing the line twice, once
being denied by some excellent defence by Sorenson and the second time
by a good cover tackle by some bloke called Bruce Bruce.
It seemed we had weathered the storm when the lively and spritish May
collected a rather loose ball around the halfway line. Off he went
bobbing and weaving as the Saints parted like the Red Sea in front of
him. A good try ensued and extras added it was 3 -7 Glos .
Back came the Saints with a good scrum resulting in a penalty and Myler adding the 3 against a very tricky wind.
Gloucester attacked again and after several false starts Mr Fox showed
the franklins Faithful that he did know the crossing law. Penalty to the
saints and the ball is cleared.
The wind was making it difficult for Saints in the 1st Half to clear to
any useful distance , which kind of led to the 2nd Gloucester try.
Saints keeping the ball in hand deeper in their own half than I would
normally expect coughed the ball up. Gloucester used the turnover ball
well moving it wide very quickly ( Take note please Mr Powell) for that
man May to go over in the corner. Robinson attempted the extras but hit
the post. Alan T remarked at that “It takes a lot of skill to do that”.
So 6- 12 to Gloucester at half- time.
Saints started the second half with more intent with Tonks kicking us
into good field position. However we do appear to have a problem at
Scrum half with the speed and accuracy of distribution. That aside some
great creative play from Myler led to Saints 1st try. Tonks beating the
chase from Myler’s exquisite grubber through the Gloucester to dot the
ball down. Myler added the extras 13-12 Saints.
A big roar greets the return of Courtney Lawes to action with 51 minutes
gone for Calum Clark . However he couldn’t prevent Saints conceding a
penalty just inside their own half which Robinson duly slots. This was
without doubt the kick of the day into that wind.
The Cherry Reds forwards were now warming to their task and hurt Saints
with a series of mauls deep into our half resulting in another easier
penalty for collapsing the maul on the 60 minute mark. 13-18 to the
Tractor boys.
4 minutes later Saints pulled 3 back after Gloucester infringed at a Scrum. 2 points the difference now.
Can Saints do it ? Well the answer was no. The Gloucester forwards
decided that we were not going to have the ball and even when they did
give us a go we were poor.
On the whole Saints were a Gazillion times better than at Bath with
Downey adding stability to the defence and some go forward in attack.
Jon Clarke still looks a little off the pace for me, but Mark Easter I
thought had a good game. The game itself was even, the difference
between the teams was the 2 pieces of magic from May.
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quite an objective report for a C blocker
Saint til I die