Reborn Gloucester ready to shed Arsenal tag
Gloucester are my Arsenal: a big club who have been too far off the pace for too long. My frustration is not born out of a dislike for the club. Far from it. I love Gloucester and all they represent. Rugby and Kingsholm – the hub of the city. The Shed. Banter. Tough people.
The old days were epic there. Rumours of watered pitches to turn it into a farmer’s field so they could slow down any attacking side and turn the game into a giant arm wrestle. Travelling fans invited to a tug-of-war against ordinary-sized Gloucester fans, who promptly disappeared as the big lads walked out from behind the Shed and humiliated the visitors.
In a multimedia age, I admire their followers on social media. They are not the type for rosetinted spectacles. They know when they have been poor. They want answers not heads, and do not blame others. Even so, there have been harsh words needed, especially last season. There is so much talent and the players have shown glimpses of such excellence that sometimes you had to question what you were watching.
In the middle of February, when they took Saracens apart, they looked a top-four team, no question. Gloucester became the first side last season to score three tries against the ominous Wolf Pack. It was not just the passion of a home performance; there was real skill, guile, pace, threat. And away at Bristol, they scored a try that Willie Heinz started with his toe almost on his own dead-ball line. It was heads-up, ruthless, lightning-fast rugby.
But sadly, just as with the positives, I could flow on with the negatives. They were battered by Bath 44-20, and at one stage were 39-8 behind. At the time, I wrote: “Classic Gloucester – fallen apart.” Other matches, similar words: “Shambles” v Leicester; “Soft tries conceded” most weeks. I could go on. This team that could be sublime were, at other times, “a group of schoolboys thrown out there and just told to win the game”. That quote is not mine. It is from Graeme Souness, two weeks ago, watching Arsenal get taken apart by Liverpool 4-0. The same can be said of the Cherry and Whites. Part of me had given up a little on singing their praises, so why am I writing about Gloucester so early, after just one week? Well, I like a guilty pleasure. I like to go back, like Kevin Costner in Tin Cup, and make the big shot.
I am not here to tell you what you know but what I hope you will know; Gloucester look different, they look like a side who can challenge for the top four.
Last year’s team would not have stood a chance. This lot may just have a crack at it.
In their first game against the Exeter Chiefs they were a long way from perfect, but there was also so much to like.
A 22-year-old back-row forward – Lewis Ludlow – made nearly 30 tackles, some of real venom. The short-kicking game of Billy Burns matches that of anyone in the league. Billy overplays the chip, yet if he can find a centre, or foil, who can help him to judge when to use it, then in a world of ferocious press defence, Gloucester’s short kicking game will play an increasingly important role. It will be vital to get in behind the midfield, to check the full-backs from closing the door on the outside too quickly, and from keeping wingers back from pressing as a midfield four.
They have a great balance in the second row. Jeremy Thrush is clever and aware, a classic Kiwi who could play centre. Tom Savage is classically English; battering people, getting up and battering again. John Afoa, Richard Hibbard and Ben Morgan can grind and move, while Heinz is a scrum-half I love watching.
A midfield of Mark Atkinson and Andy Symons – two ridiculously tall lads for centres, and I say that from my greenhouse – provide offloads, threats and handling. And they have young lads out wide who run straight and hard. Henry Purdy could be a real weapon this year and Gloucester have picked up Bristol’s superstar full-back, Jason Woodward. He had an average game by his standards last week and still won the match with a brilliant read, angled run and the power to crash over.
There was real physicality to Gloucester. Ed Slater is a great signing. Why have Leicester let this lad go? He is a monster in the maul and set-piece, knows how to handle and is a real leader.
Ruan Ackermann in the back row is a wrecking ball and