Narrow win sends Glaws back to the top
OB - winning kick
By Cherry Picker
March 15 2009
Gloucester’s absence from top spot in the Guinness Premiership didn’t last long after Leicester overtook them on Friday night, Saturday’s 24-22 win over wasps at Kingsholm returning them to the summit. But it was never easy against the reigning Guinness Premiership champions as Glaws at times appeared to be their own worst enemies.
They missed out on a lot of points with wayward kicking, yet it as an Olly Barkley penalty that clinched victory after Glaws outscored Wasps by three tries to one.
it all made us wonder what might have happened if Wasps sub Dave Walder had not had to go on as an early replacement, because his kicking kept his team in the game.
Wasps scored an early try, but replies from Olly Morgan and Iain Balshaw made it 13-all at half-time. Akapusi Qera (right) returned as a second-half replacement and his try made all the difference as Barkley just managed to kick enough points to earn victory.
But the game plan appeared to go out of the window in the last quarter of the game, and really it was closer than it should have been.
Coach Ryan Lamb Dean Ryan (oops ... heavy Saturday night to blame for that) told the BBC: "I think it was tighter than it needed to be. We missed 20 or 21 points from the boot and I don't think we ever got more than a two or three point gap. "You just cannot afford to do that against Wasps because they are pretty smart in finding wins from games they have not had that much dominance in. "We have to look at the kicking but we also lost composure in that last half hour and became a little bit individual. "If we had stuck to our guns, I thought there was a bonus point there for us, which is disappointing."
Next up is the GP visit to Wuss next weekend, and the game has a lot more at stake than just local pride as the teams blow Glaws try to make their games in hand count.
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