A Gillette Moment - Gloucester Preview

By GTD
January 25 2006

It's a shave that’s just too close to call !! The Guinness Premiership is back this weekend with an intriguing clash between Irish and Gloucester at Kingsholm. Gloucester are unbeaten there this season and are currently sitting one place above us in 4th.

One place it might be, but 6 points is the difference and this is the key to this weekend for us. Do we get dragged back into the mid-table with Wuss, Sarries and Brizzle all within striking distance of us(5 points or less) or do we close in on Gloucester.

History is most definitely against us this weekend. As far back as stats go (97/98 season) on the GP site we haven’t beaten Gloucester in their own back yard. The positive take out is that we are much improved and we did beat a very unconvincing Glos outfit at the Madejski earlier in the season by 15 points in what was titled ‘The Battle of the Boot’. I somehow get the feeling that the headline writers may not be including the ‘B word’ come Saturday afternoon.

Our injury situation seems to be improving with Riki Flutey, Mike Catt and Olivier Magne all appearing to come through Saturday’s game unscathed. Their situation appears to be slightly worsening with Tindall making a successful comeback at the weekend whilst Phil Vickery stays on the long-term injury list and their scrum half position seemingly may be taken by a 4th string.

The match could very well be a good marker for our ECC ¼ final as Gloucester have just beaten Bayonne 32-19. Although having said that from the reports I’ve read Bayonne appear to have strengthened considerably between their 2 games with Glos. Let’s hope that doesn’t continue.

Prediction : Irish by 3 : nails back to the knuckle !