Gloucester 22 Colomiers 22

Traditionally Gloucester have not flourished when regarded as favourites, and when Gloucester, unbeaten so far in the Heineken Cup, were established the clear favourites to beat Colomiers by Saturday morning’s “Rugby correspondents”, the old pressure was on once more. Kingsholm, no longer the insular ground of old, more of that later, was host to TV once more, this time in the form of Eurosport GB. Gloucester’s position in Europe this year certainly makes the City’s team media favourites and the additional income generated by a crowd of six thousand plus explains why clubs target access to the European Cup.

Although Byron Hayward was on the bench, Gloucester included Jason Little at stand off with Elton Moncrieff preferred at scrum half because of his kicking.

After an early period of Colomiers pressure, there appeared to be a generally solid look about the Gloucester performance underpinned by goal kicking by Moncrieff that always kept Gloucester in the lead in the first half. While the Colomiers backs threatened they were generally comfortably handled by the Gloucester defence. Gloucester twice came within inches of scoring a try; when Ian Jones with the assistance of the pack plunged for the line following a clean Jason Little break through the centre but was held just short, and when Christ Catling was tackled into touch just a foot from the Colomiers line. Nevertheless at half time with a lead of 12 points to 6 and with memories of the second half against Roma, Gloucester supporters must have been anticipating victory.

Since the injuries suffered by Simon Mannix and Byron Hayward, Gloucester have looked to Jason Little to fill the stand off position and this he has done, with some distinction, however, the Gloucester backs found the Colomiers defence to be solid with Catling and Fanolua both the victims of solid hits, some of them perilously high. So perhaps for this reason only two minutes into the second half, Jason Little elected to break the gain line by employing a little grubber kick through the advancing Colomiers backs. Sadly for Gloucester his inexperience in the position was exposed, a situation he freely admitted to after the match. The kick was fluffed and the ball gifted to the Colomiers backs who hardly required a second invitation. Schisano was unable to outpace Giolotti and Colomiers scored. Following the successful conversion, for the first time Colomiers took the lead 12 - 13. At this point confidence, normally a delicate commodity with French teams flooded in and soon a drop goal by Marticorena increased the Colomiers leads to 16 points to 12.

Early in the second half Kingsley Jones was replaced by Steve Ojomoh to add weight to the pack and it appeared that the policy of playing two open side flankers was under question. Colomiers were now applying all of the pressure and a series of well mounted attacks stemmed from the half back partnership Galthie and Marticorena who were frequently able to surprise the Gloucester defence with a number of well judged Garry Owens and kicks to the wing. Moncrieff was able to reduce the deficit to one point with a further well taken penalty. Whenever Gloucester tried to put together a back movement it lacked the fluidity of their play against Roma and the movement was poorly executed. Surprisingly, Philippe St Andre delayed introducing Andy Gomarsall into the match, Moncrieff after all, had only a mixed success ratio with his kicks and Gomarsall with his arcing runs from the base of the scrum would at least have allowed Jason Little to operate more as a centre. When eventually Byron Hayward came on, replacing Schisano, and then Gomarsall for Moncrieff only four minutes of proper time remained and Gloucester were four points adrift. This became seven points following a further penalty success by the Colomiers stand off Marticorena and on full time proper the score was: Gloucester 15 Colomiers 22.

The introduction of Gomarsall however did have the effect of changing the balance of play and Gloucester attempted to ratchet up the pressure as full time approached. Colomiers kept putting in the big hits, and one dangerously high tackle stemmed a clean break by Terry Fanolua and a certain try. Here was a just case for the award of a penalty try but this was overlooked by the Italian referee as was illegal application of the boot by Marticorena in the first half. Gloucester however fought to keep possession as the match stretched into injury time and following a series of well mounted attacks with Gomersall and Litte prominent, repeatedly thwarted by the Colomiers team approaching offside, Gloucester were at the last gasp eventually rewarded by a penalty try under the posts, duly converted by Byron Hayward. The home spectators were not a little confused by this decision, but maybe it was a case of poetic justice in the light of Colomiers earlier transgression. Gloucester were in the end fortunate to get out of jail and draw the match 22-22. They had done little in the second half to show that they could cross the Colomiers line, perhaps a penalty try would be the only way that they could succeed

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MAN OF THE MATCH

This was not an easy decision for Gloucester as the team as a whole performed below par. However mention has to be made of the sterling work of: Ian Jones, Terry Fanolua, Yates and Catling. In the end, though he was sin-binned and was found wanting on one occasion, Chris Catling is Man of the Match for his tackling (one tackle saved a certain try), his attacking consistency (forced into touch inches from the line on one occasion) and his taking of the high ball under pressure.

After the match

Philippe St Andre expressed disappointment with the result and the way that the team had played. For the first thirty minutes they had control of the game but after that they became error prone and indisciplined. In the second half they were unable to maintain possession, they lacked patience and they played too much as individuals and not as a team. “They are not as good as they think they are”!

Fabien Galthie thought that Colomiers had done enough to win but acknowledged Gloucester's spirit coming back at the end. He also spoke glowingly of Kingsholm as a rugby venue. “It is an incredible place". For this he will have endeared himself to all of Gloucester and not a little to the shed. But in summing up the importance of the return match at Colomiers; when he said "it is a match we have to win" he must have been speaking for the Gloucester team as well!