Glaws MUST build on long overdue victory

After stopping the losing rot by battling their way to a narrow Heineken Cup victory against Connacht in Galway last weekend, Gloucester badly need to take it a step further in the return at Kingsholm on Saturday.

Having halted a run of four defeats, albeit in a game which didn’t matter anywhere near as much as many more will this season, Glaws now need to solve their home problems.

Losing three games on the trot at home is the sort of run Gloucester just don’t normally do, but it’s happened and it’s up to the players to sort it out.

Nobody is more keen to put the problem to bed that Andy Hazell, the local lad who is no more used to this sort of ruin than the Kingsholm faithful are.

It would take a weird set of results for Glaws to qualify for the next stage of the competition, but the game is still vital for so many other reasons.

Hazell told the Citizen: we need to start rebuilding the fortress.

"We talked about that almost as soon as we were back in the changing rooms at Connacht after the game.

"Our home form will be vital to our season, so we've got to get it together without delay.

"Everyone knows that, and it was something we wanted to address quickly after Saturday's victory."

The win at Connacht was a fitting eway to mark the first anniversary of Tom Walkinshaw’s death and Hazell added: "That was massive for me, Tom had been at the club all through my career, he always supported my contracts, supported me as a player.

"But we fronted up and that was a good way to mark the anniversary. The boys fought hard, our work paid off and it was pleasing to get the result.

"For me rugby's so much about confidence that as soon as you can get a bit of that back then things can turn around.

"We're getting our full squad back,  that helps in training, we're getting that buzz back and we'll fight hard to build off the back of this now."

Hopefully he will be proved right, for while the actual result on Saturday might not be as vital as the performance considering their pool position, a week later when Wasps come to call in the Premiership only a Boxing Day win will do.