The disappointment that surrounded the season would have reached fever pitch and there is little doubt that Marcelo would have been pushed. Now we face the daunting prospect of travelling to the inform side of the season who have revenge on the mind. Everyone says we have a snowball’s chance of coming away with a victory and have been totally written off. After all, how many sides have won an away semi-final?

Unfortunately because lack of funds I won’t be attending the match, but will be able to be joined by everyone’s favourite ex-Bath tubster Stuart Barnes. In his Sunday Times column he’s already stated we’ve got absolutely no chance of coming away with a win. Thanks Stuart.

4pm: So, it’s Wasps is it? Do we really want to go through this again even if we do win? Horrible break for Danny, hope he recovers quickly.

Half time

The half started very badly with Gloucester gaining position from the off. They’re trying to play an expansive game and we’re infringing all over the place. Andy has missed a few touches and has been charged down. This is just giving the Gloucester back three opportunity to run it back at us. The impish Ryan Lamb opened the scoring with a fine kick to make it 3-0 after Muffin plays the ball in an offside position. To be fair to him he was lying on the floor and he is a forward, what other option was there? We hit back directly from the re-start with Geordan collecting a wonderful catch and great offloading before Gloucester fall to the whistle of Mr Pearson. A good chance goes begging after Andy slices horribly to the right. We’re really going to need him on form if we’re going to have any kind of chance today. He makes amends for it later, but boy did it wobble over. I’d like to think me shouting “over! Over!” from my settee definitely helped.

We’re really trying to push the game and this is a little worrying. Whilst the offloading in the tackle is good we should only do it when a good opportunity arises, not because we can. A succession of Gloucester penalties saw the lead increase to 12-3 and two Tigers in the sin-bin. Fair call for the Jordan one, as it was a clinical pull on JSD but I couldn’t say I would have done differently. Harry went for being off his feet and slowing ball down. The defence suddenly has ideas above their stations and are hitting anything that moves in red. Try saving tackles come in the large form of Alex Tuilagi and are there two Muffin Davis’ on the pitch? He’s everywhere.

My housemate Nick declares that Gloucester blew that half with odd decisions. Why not go for posts when they had the chance? He thinks Tigers holding out with 13 men will be the turning point of the game and it’s difficult to argue with him. If he wasn’t a Hull fan and excited about going to Wembley he’d be an ok kind of guy all told.

Oh and for information, it was 1 minute and 19 seconds before the “Same old Leicester always cheating” chant came. We could do it with try time tickets next year.

Well, who really saw that coming? I definitely didn’t. The half gets to a good start when Goode nails a difficult kick which only a few minutes on the board to bring the scores to 12-6, but Lamb retaliates in the kicking dual for an England squad place to return the lead to 6. Suddenly decisions started to go our way, much to the displeasure of the Gloucester faithful. We were picking holes in their usually excellent defence upfront, something we must have targeted. After some heroic work through the middle, Jordan Crane releases Goode on the right who passes to Alex. Now, at this point from what I can work out he had about 3 or 4 Gloucester players in front of him but they seemed to disintegrate. Being kind to Alex he was dropped from the Quins game due to his form and yet here he was holding onto the ball, knocking Balshaw out of the way, sending the Volcano tumbling and then ran over the poor Ryan Lamb. At least he did try and tackle him this time and didn’t just run away.

An excellent conversion from Goode from the right hand touchline was the first indication that he’d swapped to his kicking boots for the second half. 15-13. Now I was telling Nick we just had to hold on and keep our defensive line and we could keep in this. Ayerza came on which meant Herring came off and Croft slotted in at open side, a little worrying especially with Qera being the form 7 of the league. He then goes and cuts up our defence in a way an international centre would be proud of, stepping outside Ayerza drawing Geordan and putting JSD over for a clear run. It’s a lovely well-worked try and after Lamb puts the tough conversion through the centre the lead becomes 9. At the least a converted try and penalty would give us the lead for the first time. I admitted to Nick that I thought it was game over. Surely they won’t lose a lead like that at home after playing so well over the past few weeks?

After some Gloucester pressure Tigers found themselves in their own 22 and instead of going for touch we decide to go for it. It didn’t start well with Goode’s pass going above the impressive Murphy’s head, causing him to be at full stretch just to get it. Not that he lets that stop him. After stepping off his right foot the George Best of rugby is away. Suddenly we’re flying into the Gloucester half and quick ball pushes Hipkiss into the 22. Somehow Glos manage to turn the ball over but find themselves a scrum half down as Lawson is at the bottom of the ruck. Lamb decides to take over and in the same area of the pitch where he was steamrolled by Alex sends an up and under that Kardooni would have been proud off. My shouts of “catch it Ben!” were ignored and the ball finds itself in Ian Balshaws hands. He decides he doesn’t want it and throws it into the post, which wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had. Mauger collected and did a lovely swan dive under the posts. After some deliberation from the video referee, Pearson decides to award the try. Seemingly they don’t disallow tries for bad plays by Balshaw even if he tries to disguise himself in a scrumcap.

Conversion over. 22-20 and we’re one penalty away from a historic victory. It’s Gloucester’s turn to attack now and was it not for a forward pass from Luke Narraway Ryan Lamb would have scored under the posts. Just keep the composure I was shouting, realising I’d been standing for the entirety of the second half and had taken no notes. Oops.

Once again hard graft gets us up the park and Goode nails a penalty. 62 minutes gone and we’re in the lead. Just have to hold on. More good work from Gloucester down the left has a disbelieving Dan Hipkiss lying on the ball. Here was Lamb’s chance to kick a penalty that would surely be a match winner. As I couldn’t bear to watch, Nick informed me he’d missed. The minutes at this point were dragging. More Gloucester pressure and after moving towards the centre of the park Willie Walker steps up and nails a well-taken drop goal. Head sinks, Nick decides to read the Times. Barnes nearly having a fit on the box. Suddenly the match opens up. Instead of going for touch Ryan Lamb dummies and races through the defence. This was ok; if they want to do this we could get the ball back. Croft makes some big tackles and we’re back on the front foot. Martin Corry takes the ball forward three times in as many phases and even though we’re still a distance from the posts Goode slots into the drop goal position. “He’s going for it!” I exclaimed to Nick who decided that was good enough reason to peer over the top of the Times. Not only did he go for it, he nailed it. I jump onto Nick and the rest as they say, is history.

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