Gloucester get to grips with the ref and the Irish
GLOUCESTER, losing finalists last year, produced enough classy moments when they were needed to close out this wonderfully entertaining Challenge Cup quarterfinal at the Sportsground in Connacht to earn a semi-final against Newcastle.
The anticipated rain and gales never arrived but Connacht at home are always capable of kicking up a storm and Gloucester coach Ruan Ackermann will be delighted how his team coped with highly motivated opponents.
Henry Trinder – surely South Africa-bound this summer with England – led the defensive effort and also provided an individual moment of brilliance to see Gloucester take the lead just before half-time but there were other big performances for Ackemann to enthuse over.
Skipper Will Heinz was immense, No.8 Ben Morgan is beginning to carry and muscle his way around the park in the manner that earned England selection and Ross Moriarty put in a strong shift.
Fly-half Owen Williams, short of rugby recently, took a little while to settle and, like opposite number Jack Carty, struggled with a few early place kicks but as the Welshman began to settle into his game his influence grew and a couple of sweetly struck second half penalties ultimately proved very important indeed.
And not only that, Gloucester had to show maturity in composure in completely changing their approach after the first 20 minutes in which they had continuously got on the wrong side of referee Romain Poite which is never a good idea. They had to tighten up their discipline and stop prevaricating before every lineout or else the game was over there and then.
“You look at that first 25 minutes and yes we struggled to adapt to the referee,” admitted Ackermann. “We struggled to understand him at the lineouts, the scrums etc but we hung in there and that’s the one thing that the team has learnt well, the experienced guys kept cool and it came good in the end.”
It was Gloucester who did get out off the traps first with a breakaway try by James Hanson after loose line-out work by the home side, but after that it was all Connacht for 20 minutes as they poured on the pressure, aided and abetted by a steady stream of Gloucester offences and a yellow card to Morgan.
Connacht took advantage with a well-taken try by Kieran Marmion and a hugely popular score from Budee Aki but, in truth, Connacht didn’t quite cash in as they should and in no time two beautiful passes in midfield saw Tom Marshall touch down wide out and, despite everything, it was 10-10.
Then came Trinder’s brilliance, a lovely step and acceleration in midfield before he showed the strength to force his way through three defenders to score as half-time approached.
It was the key score and meant Connacht were always playing catch-up after the break, albeit they gave it everything they had in the second half which began with Williams landing a 40m penalty before speedster Niyi Adeolukun won the chase for a converted try to narrow the gap to two points.
Gloucester responded with a superb try for John Afoa, making his hundredth Gloucester appearance, and Williams’ second penalty appeared to take them out of range – but back came Connacht with a Carty penalty and a cracking try by Healy, converted by Ronaldson
The game was on a knife edge but a deliberate knock down by Butler earned a yellow card and Billy Twelvetrees slotted the decisive penalty.