Barkley dropped, rested, left out, overlooked
Barkley - dropped
By Cherry Picker
November 14 2008
Dropped, rested or left out - it all comes down to the same thing as there’s no place in the Gloucester team for Olly Barkley when they line up against Saracens on Sunday. The former Bath and England player is on the bench for a game which sees a string of changes after a disappointing display a fortnight ago at Newcastle.
Teenage scrum-half Dave Lewis is rewarded for a game-changing appearance as a replacement at Kingston Park as he takes over from Gareth Cooper, who like Barkley is dropped, rested, left out, overlooked etc etc etc.
The injury situation is at last showing signs of clearing up as Anthony Allen (right) makes his long overdue return in place of Barkley, Will James is back in the second row and Olly Morgan is at full-back.
Alasdair Strokosch is available at No. 8 after being overlooked, dropped, rested, ignored, left out by Scotland, but Carlos Nieto and Marco Bortolami are with Italy. Jack Forester gets his first game of the season at tight-head, as does Apo Satala in the back row.
Coach Dean Ryan, meanwhile, is giving little away about the personalities involved in his changes, but he did say: "We have had some clarity over some injuries this week which has been a significant help to us and we have been relaxed and focused on getting back to the style of rugby we played last season.
"I think we got caught up in a number of issues at the start of the season but have worked hard to resolve them and we want to build on what we do well with some confidence.
"Saracens are a very good, well organised side – it is always a significant test against them – but we have just worked hard on aspects of our game to get them right and hope to take them forward into Sunday."
Roughly translated, that means he’s glad the injuries are clearing up, they’ve been working on early-season problems, he wants the team to play to its strengths, and Saracens will be hard to beat. He does tend to use six words when one will do doesn’t he?
GLAWS: Olly Morgan, Iain Balshaw, Mike Tindall (capt), Anthony Allen, Lesley Vainikolo, Ryan Lamb, Dave Lewis; Nick Wood, Olivier Azam, Jack Forster, Will James, Alex Brown, Peter Buxton, Apo Satala, Alasdair Strokosch. Reps: Dave Young, Scott Lawson, Adam Eustace, Dan Williams, Gareth Cooper, Olly Barkley, Matthew Watkins.
