Ackermann ‘the beast’ swings it to Gloucester
HOW much longer can England afford to ignore the talents of Ruan Ackermann?
The Gloucester No. 8 produced his third manof-the-match performance from his last six outings by scoring two tries to ensure Irish maintained their miserable record at Kingsholm.
Irish have now lost on 21 of their 23 Premiership visits to the ground but they might have improved on that dismal statistic if it were not for the heroics of Ackermann.
Gloucester’s head coach, George Skivington said: “Ruan is a proper team man and he knows his role in the team.
“He has big moments in defence and in the setpiece, he is a beast of a man.
“He’s banging on the international door and surely can’t be ignored but all he can do is to keep going at what he’s doing.”
Ackermann said: “I’ve heard nothing from Eddie (Jones) so at the moment all I can do is focus on Gloucester but it’s a dream for me to play international rugby.”
Ackermann is not alone in being ignored by England as his captain, Lewis Ludlow, turned in yet another decent effort to give Jones a prod but overall it wasn’t a vintage performance from the home side.
For large parts of the game they were on the back-foot and, without the whole of the first choice three-quarter line, they lacked any potency in attack.
If anything, Irish were the more penetrative with lively efforts from Nick Phipps and James Stokes but they were too inaccurate to make it count in a game littered with penalties for not releasing.
An Irish side playing at their best could easily have won and they will be disappointed at their failure to take chances when Gloucester were under huge pressure
None more so than when Irish made an explosive start to dominate the opening ten minutes. They penned their opponents in their own 22 with Gloucester struggling to keep their line intact.
The visitors should have scored but Gloucester escaped for the opening try when Ackermann crashed over from a line-out.
The first half turned out to be a stop-start affair with the only thrills occurring in the final moments.
First Stokes sailed past a weak tackle from Giorgi Kveseladze to run 50 metres but a splendid cover tackle from Ludlow prevented Irish from capitalising before Charlie Chapman looked certain to score Gloucester’s second.
At 25 metres out, the scrum-half chipped ahead and collected to cross the line but a remarkable intervention from Paddy Jackson saw him turn Chapman and prevent him from touching down so Gloucester were ahead only 7-0 at the interval.
The home side then scored a superb second. From a close-range lineout, Gloucester sucked in the defenders before excellent passing from their three-quarters provided wing Ollie Thorley with an easy run-in.
Irish needed a swift response and they got one. A quick dart from Phipps put the defence on the back foot and Olly Cracknell was up in support to force his way over.
The game hung in the balance but Gloucester finished the stronger with a penalty from Adam Hastings and a second try from a powerful Ackermann surge providing a final score which was harsh on the battling Irish.