Gloucester fade away in Euro final to hand Saints a play-off lifeline
DESPAIR for Gloucester but jubilation for Northampton — as well as Stade Francais. The West Country side threw away a commanding position in the Challenge Cup final last night, to hand their Aviva Premiership rivals another shot at Champions Cup qualification.
David Humphreys’ men surged into a 10-0 lead after England wing Jonny May had stunned Stade with a brilliant interception try. But Gloucester didn’t score again for 57 minutes, by which time their French opponents had turned the tables emphatically. Victory for the Cherry and Whites would have earned them a third title in Europe’s secondary tournament and also a play-off for the right to compete in the top event next season. Instead, their defeat means that Northampton — who finished seventh in the Premiership — now have a chance to salvage something from a grim season if they can beat Connacht at Franklin’s Gardens next Saturday, then either Stade or Cardiff Blues the following week.
Gloucester were under the cosh in the opening exchanges but out of the blue they took the lead when May struck from 65 metres out after snatching a pass from Jonathan Danty and racing clear. Billy Burns converted and in the 22nd minute he added a penalty to give the English
side a 10-0 lead. But, remarkably, Gloucester didn’t trouble the scoreboard until it was too little, too late.
Stade opened their account with a Jules Plisson penalty, and just after the half-hour they levelled the contest, with a try from captain Sergio Parisse after Will Genia’s chip was tapped down by Hugh Pyle. Plisson’s conversion made it 10-10.
Straight from the restart, the Parisian club’s no 10 was felled when Willi Heinz thrust an arm into his face as he attempted to charge down a clearance kick. The Gloucester captain was shown a yellow card and was perhaps fortunate it wasn’t red. The tension rose and erupted just before the break with a mass brawl, but no further cards were shown.
after half-time, Tom Marshall came close to scoring a try but seconds later the Gloucester full-back’s pass was intercepted by djibril Camara, who combined with Hugo Bonneval to send danty away for his side’s second try.
The third came nine minutes from time when Geoffrey doumayrou scorched through a shattered defence to touch down. Morne Steyn converted and struck a penalty, and Lions flanker Ross Moriarty’s try with a minute to go was no more than a consolation.
‘Stade were fantastic,’ said Gloucester hooker Richard Hibbard. ‘We’re disappointed with some areas of our game, but we just weren’t getting the rub of the green. We’ll dust ourselves off but it’s been a good cup run.’