It’s a thriller as Gloucester share 90pts with Coventry
COVENTRY and Gloucester served up a 14-try thriller at the Butts Park Arena to sign off their pre-season campaigns.
The Gallagher Premiership visitors saw a 22-point lead shrink to just three in the second half as Gloucester were temporarily reduced to 12 men with two players in the sin-bin, which prompted uncontested scrums.
But George Skivington’s side pulled away in the final ten minutes with their seventh and eighth tries in the 90-point encounter.
Only four minutes had passed when Gloucester’s Jake Morris latched onto a wonderful backs move on halfway to scorch home in the right corner.
Just as they did a week previously against Wasps, Coventry recovered from the early setback as Tony Fenner masterfully freed centre Tom Griffiths for a run to the line.
Senitiki Nayalo’s yellow card proved costly for the hosts as Jack Bartlett rumbled over to regain Gloucester’s lead. Then Charlie Chapman’s perfectly-weighted kick was finished off by Louis HillmanCooper.
Gloucester lost Jamal FordRobinson to a head injury that would have further ramifications later in the contest.
Restored to 15 men Coventry still couldn’t stem the one-way traffic as hooker Seb Blake rolled over for Gloucester’s fourth try.
Coventry cut the deficit to ten points when Rob Knox sliced through a gap after smart work from Sale Sharks loanee Ethan Caine.
But Gloucester had the last laugh of the first period when Jason Woodward was rewarded for his linebreak, combining with Alex Morgan to tiptoe down the left wing and score.
George Barton’s try minutes into the second half was followed by two quickfire yellow cards for his team-mates Charlie Chapman and Kirill Gotovtsev, which saw the game go to uncontested scrums and a further player be withdrawn from the pitch as a consequence.
Coventry cashed in as Nayalo, Josh Barton and Joe Brock scored in the space of 14 frenetic minutes to get within a try of victory.
Those hopes were extinguished as Italian international Stephen Varney provided the creative spark for Morris’ second and for Henry Taylor to cross to bring up the half-century with Barton’s fifth successful conversion. Spirited Coventry grabbed the game’s final points as replacement hooker Suva Ma’asi, pounced.