Gloucester pay price for late double yellow
GLOUCESTER’S rich vein of form came to an abrupt halt as Bristol won a thrilling West Country derby to record their first Premiership win over their rivals since December 2008.
After impressive wins over the league’s top two, Gloucester were favourites, but they were rattled by fiercely committed opposition who scored two superb tries to secure a crucial victory.
Gloucester coach Johan Ackermann said: “Their two counter-attacking tries were brilliant but we have to look at ourselves.
“We were turned over ten times in the first half, it was only seven in the whole game last week, so it wasn’t good enough and we have to learn to play better away from home.
“We made a lot of mistakes and losing is a blow as we wanted to keep momentum.”
In Ollie Thorley and Jason Woodward, Gloucester had the best attacking talents on show but the early loss of No.9 Willi Heinz was a big blow, and this, coupled with a mixed game from Danny Cipriani, prevented Gloucester from exercising control.
Admirable Bristol defence – they made 208 tackles to Gloucester’s 94 – restricted the damage as Stephen Luatua and Dan Thomas were huge thorns in the visitors’ side. On the heels of his pack, Andy Uren was a livewire but Bristol’s centres lacked the guile to create space for their X-factor players, Luke Morahan and Charles Piutau, who had to make their own opportunities.
Bristol made a blistering start by scoring a superb opening try, which began with Charles Piutau collecting a clearance kick. The full-back then timed his pass perfectly to send Luatua through a gap before Luke Daniels provided Dan Thomas with an easy run-in.
Gloucester suffered another setback when Heinz departed with concussion but they overcame this to take the lead when a neat run-around move involving Cipriani and Billy Twelvetrees created a try for Woodward.
Twelvetrees converted but two penalties from Callum Sheedy, who was replaced at half-time with a leg injury, gave Bristol an 11-7 interval lead.
Twelvetrees kicked a penalty before Bristol produced another try out of the top drawer. With a thrilling run, Morahan burst out of defence to feed Charles Piutau before Uren was on hand to just hold off the cover defence.
Gloucester hit back with their second try when Woodward drew two defenders to allow Tom Marshall to dive over. Woodward then played a major part in their third when he hared after a Cipriani kick to put pressure on Charles Piutau, who lost possession for Thorley to pick up and score.
Woodward blotted his copybook with a yellow card for a deliberate knock down. A penalty try could have been awarded but Bristol did haven’t long to wait for one as a driving line-out was collapsed with Ed Slater sent to the bin.
Twelvetrees, who was previously faultless, missed a straightforward penalty but it mattered little as Ian Madigan hammered one over from half-way.