Billy bags a score as Skivington lads come good again
BILLY Twelvetrees scored 20 points as Gloucester recovered from last week’s worrying 38-15 defeat at the hands of Leicester with a convincing victory.
It was a closely contested game for the first 35 minutes but the Gloucester pack increased the intensity to dominate their opponents with two tries from Paolo Udogwu in the last three minutes giving Wasps a flattering final score.
Gloucester haed coach George Skivington said: “It was a tough week last week and we needed to show a lot of energy, which we did.
“We caught a few more balls and kicked a bit better and we cut out a lot of our errors. Our defence was outstanding and the boys were hungry to make tackles as Wasps are a massive attacking threat.”
Gloucester were indebted to hugely committed performances from locks Matt Garvey and Ed Slater as the Wasps pack minus the inspiration of England absentees, Jack Willis and Joe Launchbury, had to concede second best.
This allowed half-backs Lloyd Evans and Joe Simpson to control proceedings with Wasps having little to enthuse about apart from another hugely promising effort from Alfie Barbery and the finishing of Udogwu.
Wasps began brightly but the home side had the first chance for points only for Twelvetrees to miss a straight-forward penalty.
Minutes later, after a strong burst from centre, Mark Atkinson, Twelvetrees was presented with an even easier opportunity and this time he made no mistake.
Despite being disrupted by injuries, Wasps took the lead when, from a lineout ten metres from the hosts’ line, the ball went loose for Michael Le Bourgeois to seize possession and score.
Gopperth surprisingly missed the conversion ahead of a period of sustained Gloucester pressure which ended with Twelvetrees kicking his second penalty before hooker Jack Singleton finished off a driving lineout to give the hosts a 13-5 interval lead.
Twelvetrees extended the lead but Wasps responded with their second try. Skilful play from Thomas Young sent Josh Bassett racing away down the left flank before Barbeary forced his way over from close range, the flanker’s fifth try in his last seven matches.
The game continued to gain impetus with a second try in as many minutes as Gloucester responded when Garvey burst away from a maul 15 metres out.
Twelvetrees missed the conversion and then a penalty after Wasps’ replacement, Levi Douglas, was sin-binned for repeated team infringements.
Gloucester took advantage when Evans burst away to feed Twelvetrees, who didn’t have the legs to make it to the line but Simpson was on-hand to receive the scoring pass.
With 13 minutes remaining, Jason Woodward finished off an excellent three-quarter move to pick up the bonus point before Twelvetrees intercepted Gopperth’s pass to race away for the fifth.
Spirited Wasps controlled the remainder of the game and, after Ruan Ackermann was sin-binned for team infringements, replacement Odogwu scored two tries in quick succession to secure a bonus point. our g ame mana gement in the middle thir d not good enough. “Injuries to some f orwards before the interval didn’t help but Alfie Barbeary a gain impressed. His ball-car rying w as excellent and I’m pretty pleased with him.” Danny Cipriani w as not included in Gloucester’s 23 and head coac h George Ski vington said: “A fter last week’s defeat, we decided w e needed a whole week’s training. “Danny was unable to train on Monda y and Tuesday, as w as Le wis Ludlow, so both were left out. Lewis was extremely disappointed not to pla y. In Dann y’s absence I thought Lloyd Evans did a great job.”