Promise is mixed with naivety as Gloucester lose in dead rubber
» Both teams were desperate to win ‘meaningless’ game
IT was a dead rubber with supposedly nothing to play for but you wouldn’t have guessed it by the way Gloucester and Castres went at it hammer and tong until the 85th minute.
Both sides made a lot of changes and Gloucester’s players looked like they were determined to prove a point either by making the most of their opportunity of a start or make up for the disappointment of the previous week’s heavy home defeat to Munster.
Matt Banahan came in to the side and set up all three tries, while Henry Trinder gave the sort of performance that Gloucester fans have been waiting for, scoring his first try of the season, and Tom Hudson put a difficult night a week earlier behind him by having a big impact on the game with some trysaving interventions defensively.
The visitors showed plenty of heart as they defended for their lives and put bodies on the line, while giving it a go whenever they got the ball in hand, particularly during the first half as they raced into a 14-0 lead.
But any suggestion that Castres were not interested would have been consigned to the bin as they kept banging on the door throughout and would not give up easily, taking the lead for the first time deep in added time to win it through Ma’ama Vaipulu’s try.
» Gloucester made better use of limited ball
GLOUCESTER led for almost the entire match, which is quite remarkable going by the statistics.
Although the visitors started brightly, scoring tries through Trinder and Ben Vellacott in the first 20 minutes, Castres went on to dominate the rest of the game with 67 per cent possession and 76 per cent territory, while they held a big advantage at the set piece.
The only statistic where Gloucester came out on top was in tackles, making 100 more (178 to 78) with a success rate of 86 per cent compared to 80 per cent.
It shows how well Gloucester defended but also how they made better use of the ball, playing delightful rugby at times to score three wellworked tries.
Banahan had a big hand in all three, his no-look flick over his head sending Trinder away for the first before he smashed his way through in midfield to set up Vellacott’s try, while in the second half he teed up Owen Williams to score when he collected Lloyd Evans’ crosss-field kick.
» Youngsters offered hope but also showed naivety
A TOTAL of six players in Gloucester’s matchday squad were from the academy and there were plenty of positives to take away.
It was always going to be difficult for the front row of Alex Seville, Henry Walker and Ciaran Knight up against their more experienced opponents and the scrum did creak at times but got better as the game went on, culminating in winning a penalty against the head in the second half that Owen Williams slotted to re-take the lead after Castres had drawn level at 14-14.
Lloyd Evans, who is not an academy player but still young and inexperienced at the top level, also gave an encouraging performance at fly-half, looking confident with the ball in hand and helping set up the third try with his neat kick to find Banahan.
It would have been a big learning curve for the youngsters as well and it could be argued there was a bit of naivety at the end when replacement Tom Seabrook, having done well to help win the turnover, excitedly kicked the ball long, keeping it infield without realising the clock had passed 80 with Gloucester leading 22-19 at the time.
» A European campaign that promised so much ended on a low note THE defeat was a disappointing way for Gloucester to finish their Heineken Champions Cup campaign, which promised so much more at one stage.
A tough draw meant the Cherry and Whites were always the underdogs to get through but they showed they belong back at Europe’s top table after a five-year absence by beating French champions Castres at home in their first game and that superb win at Exeter Chiefs in round three.
However, three straight defeats in the competition has put a dampener on things and they could reflect on what might have been.
At the start of the competition Gloucester would have targeted their three home games to get victories so to lose two of them would be the biggest disappointment.
Although it was a dead rubber in Castres, a win would have gone some way up to making up for it and lifted spirits with three wins and a third place finish in the group being more respectable.