Not much festive fun at Glaws

It's supposed to be the festive season, but there's not a lot of good will at Gloucester at the moment, as coach Bryan Redpath tries to get to the bottom of his team's slump in form.

Just when he thought the return of his World Cup players would inspire an improvement, the opposite has happened.

Glaws have only won once in their last seven games and last weekend’s single-point defeat at Newcastle was the fourth time this season they have lost a Premiership game after being in the lead.

And Redpath’s patience is wearing thin.

It’s back to the Heineken Cup for the next two weeks as Glaws play away and home against Connacht, the other team from their pool unlikely to qualify, but it’s back to the Prem with a bang over Christmas and New Year as Glaws face Wasps at home on Boxing Day and Saracens away on New Year’s Day.

Redpath told the Citizen: “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see what is wrong, it’s there for all to see, it’s glaring us in the face and we need to knuckle down.

“We’re going to have the same challenges next week, and the week after and the week after.

“We need to have a look at our habits and some of them need to have a real look at themselves. I’ve said it to everyone, I’ve been brutally honest, collectively we all need to sit down and decide what goes on.

 “There’s no point in shying away from it. There’s going to be criticism of us for not finishing off tight games and quite rightly so.

“We’ve got to knuckle down, we’re going to have to fight, and we’ve got to be up for that fight, because it’s not going to get any easier.

 “Everyone has to understand what it is, not just four or five. Everyone needs to be aware that you’re only 80 minutes away from your chance or your turn or your slackness, and we can’t afford that.

“Poor set-piece, poor basic skills, I think we were the better rugby-playing side but our set-piece wasn’t good enough and some of our contact-area work just after half-time, not good enough.

“We might have outscored them three tries to two, but it’s not about who outscores who, it’s about who’s the smartest and the most clinical.”

Glaws are as good as out of the Heineken Cup, so they need to use the two Connacht games to rediscover how to win rugby matches.