Gloucester Destroy Leeds Away From Home

Playoff rivals
By Cherrybomb
May 12 2002

Gloucester will get a home game against Newcastle in the playoffs on Saturday After this comprehensive whipping of Leeds, 50-17. Simpson-Daniel scored another two tries to add to his three against Bath, with touchdowns coming from another five players.

Second place was just out of grasp though, with Sale beating Harlequins 40-11.

Sale's win means that they will end up in second place, though a home tie against Wasp's, Sale's opponents in the playoffs, is not as appealing as a home tie against the Falcons. Gloucester should be happy with third place, as most people would have taken that at the beginning of the season, especially with Bath ending up second from bottom!

A fair few Gloucester supporters made the long journey up to Headingly, and they started off rather disappointed. Leeds came out all guns blazing, and for the first 20 minutes looked the better side. Gloucester made a lot of mistakes, with eventually Chris Hall going over for the Tykes. He collected a clever pass from Dan Scarbrough and went passed Henry Paul all too easily. A penalty from Braam Van Straaten added to his conversion made the score 10-0 to Leeds.

Although Henry Paul made a few mistakes in defense, occasionally taking his eyes of the ball, his attack was a different story. This performance was probably better then the one against Bath, as he showed new found confidence when running with the ball, being the maker of a few of Gloucester's tries. Henry Paul isn't really a runner of the ball, but a clever tactician. When he received the ball in his own half from a high kick, his clever running drew in the Leeds defence and a good pass set up James Forrester to run under the posts, with Mercier converting. The game then looked like it would always be Gloucester's, when Mercier added a penalty to even the scores at 10-10.

Gloucester knew they needed four tries for a chance to take second place, and a second try came in injury time when Junior Paramore scored a typical Junior try, storming over from 10 metres. He is Gloucester's joint top try scorer along with James Simpson-Daniel in the league, with both of them being joint third try scorers overall. Ludovic Mercier was the premiership's second highest pints scorer, with 334 points overall. Considering that Henry Paul has also kicked penalties, this is quite an achievement.

The second half started well for Gloucester, after more skill from Paul eventually left Woodman to penetrate the line in loads of space. Then came Sinbad's first, when he was released on the wing and never looked back, running the full 70 metres to go under the posts. What makes Simpson-Daniel so lethal in attack is that once released you know he has the effort and skill to make it the full way, and doesn't rely on support. His second came when Terry Fanolua released him, notching up his 12th try of the season so far, 9th in the league. Considering he has played only a few league games this season the promise for next season is unbelievable.

Another two tries came from first touches, as soon as Daren O'Leary replaced Diego Albanese he scored with his first touch, and soon after Koli Sewabu did the same. For some reason Leeds substituted all of the players which were making an impact, and this resulted in the four tries in 10 minutes.

Leeds got a consolation try at the end, with Paul again beaten as Dan Scarbrough went through.

Final Score: Leeds 17-50 Gloucester

Tickets are sure to be in short supply for Saturday as one of the most eagerly awaited ties is now inevitable. The reception Gloucester give Newcastle and Rob Andrew is unknown, the 11,000 supporters could throw a lot of their passion towards their own players to spur them on for the win, or the passion could be directed at Andrew. Let's just hope that if it is directed at Andrew he doesn't complain that it was too loud and it didn't make it a fair game!

After the playoffs I am looking for someone to write a review of the season, and someone to write a preview of next season. If you would like to do either please e-mail me at: cherrybomb@glosrfc.com

All ideas should also be sent to the address above. Sign up to the glosrfc.com newsletter to receive all the news first.