Ackermann: Now let’s beat our travel bug
GLOUCESTER preserved their 100 per cent home Premiership record – but head coach Johan Ackermann immediately insisted that his side need to become winners on the road as well as at home.
The West Countrymen missed out on a try-scoring bonus-point despite an avalanche of second-half possession and territory, but made another step towards becoming genuine play-off contenders.
Ackermann said: “We want to make it tough for teams here but it’s not something we focus on or talk about. We want to be a side that performs both away and home.
“This competition is such that you must win away, too. This is just a good win and the ball is rolling in the right direction.
“There probably could have – and should have – been more tries, but we’ll take it.”
Billy Twelvetrees stood out for the Cherry and Whites, acting as a second playmaker and firing off a range of smart passes.
A small solace for Leicester, who had not lost to Gloucester since October 2014, was a losing bonuspoint secured by Matt Toomua’s last-minute penalty.
The blackboard outside The Dean’s Walk pub just around the corner from Kingsholm had predicted a 30-24 home win before kickoff. And at half-time it looked like a canny forecast, with the sides at 14-14.
And if Gloucester had converted their second-half dominance into points, then they should have hit the 30-point mark.
But it had been a mistake-riddled opening, with Leicester, in particular, snatching at passes. It was therefore something of an irony when Tigers winger Nick Malouf, who moments earlier had knocked on a sitter, snaffled a pass by Henry Trinder and ran in a 75-metre intercept try.
Ruan Ackermann and Jake Polledri’s ball-carrying gave Gloucester flashes of attacking menace, but yards were too often squandered by errant passing.
However, Gloucester’s handling was superb for their opener. Twelvetrees smartly switched the angle of attack, and Billy Burns, Polledri and Lewis Ludlow combined to put Trinder into space and make up for his earlier mistake.
There was an immediate riposte as the game jumped up two gears. Brendon O’Connor breached the Gloucester defence on halfway and skilfully onetwoed with Graham Kitchener before finding Joe Ford in support. The fly-half converted his own touchdown.
Trinder, who had moved from centre to left wing following an injury to Ollie Thorley, scored the game’s third try in six minutes. James Hanson got Gloucester on the front foot, before Tom Marshall squeezed the ball out to Trinder.
Gloucester squandered an overlap early in the second half, but took the lead for the first time when Twelvetrees nudged over a simple penalty following a high tackle on Willi Heinz by Logovi’i Mulipola. Both departed – Mulipola to the sin bin, Heinz for an HIA.
Momentum was with Gloucester, whose solid scrum and enterprising three-quarter play was starting to expose holes in the Leicester defence. With the Tigers down to 14, the home side’s reward came when Matt Scott benefited from Twelvetrees’ delayed pass to dot down.
There followed an exhausting afternoon of tackling for Leicester, who did not get out of their half in the second period until the passage of play leading to Toomua’s late penalty.