Glaws need to bounce back in France

By Cherry Picker
January 9 2013

If Gloucester need any further incentive to produce a result in their Amlin Cup game at Bordeaux on Friday night, they should take another look at the video of last weekend's Premiership defeat against London Irish at Kingsholm.

To say that performance was a disappointment is the understatement of the season so far, and as professionals there can surely be no doubt that the Glaws players will be desperate to make amends.

Glaws have done well in cup competitions this season, and they don’t want to falter there. The game at Bordeaux is followed by a home Amlin game against Mont de Marsan in the same competition eight days later, and good results in those games should ensure top place in their group and a home quarter-final.

So there are many reasons for them wanting to do well in France, and of course coach Nigel Davies is more than keen to see his team bounce back after what he admitted was their worst display of the season against Irish.

But he doesn’t want an over-reaction to the game.

"It's important we don't panic,” he told the Citizen. "We'll analyse the game and react the way we always do. But within that there will be a few home truths, that's for sure.

"We've got to respond and look into why this happened and where we went wrong.

"We're still very much a work in progress. We're not good enough yet to slip off the hard work and intensity and the accuracy that we've brought to certain games.”

He clearly knows what wants to see in France, and in the home game a week later, and most fans will go along with him on that.

The two Amlin games are followed by LV= Cup games at Northampton and at home to Bath, and it’s just as important that Glaws perform well in those before they return to the Premiership at Northampton on February 9.