Glos v ViadanaHC January 11th 2003 Bright
sunshine greeted us for this game but it was still a very cold January
day. Triple socks kept my feet from falling off this time, but they were
still bordering on being ice blocks. Credit to Viadana for their stubborn defence. In the first few minutes of the match they snuffed out a couple of Glos driving mauls in their 22 and it took Glos a further 10 minutes to score. Marcel received the ball in the 22. My cries of "go on Marcel" were more in hope than expectation as he had 2 or 3 defenders to beat but he went on to touch down in the corner. Further
tries from Forrester and Beim took the Half time score to:- Still
a pretty close match. Junior scored early in the second half to stretch
the lead, then Viadana fought back with penalties and a fine interception
try from Steyn who scored all their points. With the score at Glos 26
- Viadana 16 it was time for Glos to wake up. It took them until the final
quarter but they did score 6 further tries:- Gomars was captain for the day as Vickery started on the bench, but Clive Stuart-Smith did play the final 10 minutes of the match at scrum-half. Final Score : Glos 64 - Viadana 16 So 10 tries from Glos in total with Ludo converting 7. As my regular readers will know I rarely criticise our lads - I am a fan after all, but our backs as a unit do seem to make hard work of things. Often we watch them pass the ball around a lot without crossing the gain line. This compared to the Sale backs for example looks very laboured; but then they did score 5 tries yesterday so perhaps my criticism is unfair. There were lots of very good performances. Great to see Andy Hazel play 60 minutes and retire unscathed. JSD was excellent - wonderful to see his sublime passing skills again; but I agree with the HC assessors and man of the match goes to Junior Paramore. A
good win and with Perpignan beating Munster, it's all on the last match
next weekend - Munster
v Glos. Ernie C. |