On an overcast day at the Madejski Stadium, there were more than a few hangovers in the 8,449 crowd, not least my own, after the LISC Dinner & Dance on Saturday night.

First blood came to Irish in the form of a penalty from Barry Everitt in the second minute. By the 4th minute, Irish were trailing to a converted try scored by Adam Eustace. Bishop put in a tackle on Fanolua, but took player and not ball. A quick spin out to Eustace and he stepped inside Rossouw to run through a huge gap to touch down. Nevertheless, Irish picked themselves up and set to work with fine attacking play for the rest of the first half. The Gloucester defence was mighty, but cynical. The referee, Mr. Rowden again, second week in a row for us, warned Gloucester captain Jake Boer about the constant use of hands on the ground, but took no action on that point for a further hour.

In contrast, Kieron Dawson was the first player to see the yellow card for pulling down a maul, our first such offence. On Dawson’s return early in the second half, he almost met Robert Todd on his way to the bin as a result of the persistent offending. Gloucester were briefly down to 13 when Henry Paul followed Todd in the 55th minute.

Whilst Irish were down to fourteen men, they fought bravely with Barry keeping the score ticking along. Irish fully deserved to go in at half time level at 16-16. The first half had seen one or two moments from Rossouw, some good placing, an excellent clearance from inside the 22 but a couple of knock-ons, which proved costly at the time.

The large Gloucester following were making themselves heard as their team put on a display of powerful forwards play. For once, Chris Sheasby was not the oldest man on the field with Andy Deacon, 37, having a stormer. “Even his kicking has improved, I am very pleased for him”, said Nigel Melville after the game. Dean Ryan looked pretty happy too and rightly so, with all of Gloucester’s 5 tries being scored by the forwards. Irish heads were already down before Roncero ran through a gap with 3 Irish backs, including the Doc at the end to hammer home the point. Our guys looked knackered at the end.

“Gloucester are very adept at slowing the game down in their own 22, but that seems to be the hallmark of the top teams”, said Conor O’ Shea, “we were in the game until the 63rd minute, until after the penalty miss meant we started to chase the game. I don’t know if our lack of penetration in the opposition 22 is a psychological thing”.

“Gloucester came and showed us exactly why they will be in the top 2 again this season, if not the league winners”, Conor added.

Jake Boer had a fine game and was in the thick of everything that Gloucester did on the park. He fully deserved his try in the 68th minute try. Could we tempt him back? Looking at the teams, in each position the Gloucester players to a man looked bigger.

Simon Halford went off with a thigh injury in the 24th minute to be replaced by Durant, with the normal front row rotation of Hatley for Worsley taking place in the 47th minute. Pierre didn’t disappoint but must have felt the pressure from that Glaws pack even if they were weakened by the absence of their International stars. What could the score have been if the pack was at full strength?

Barry Everitt varied the game plan, but the tactic of trying to drive out from our own 22 was to prove fatal again, why not stick to Plan A? Give it to Barry and let him kick for territory! Having said that, we lost too many lineouts again and the statistics for turnover ball should make interesting reading for the coaching staff. Nevertheless, playing the game in the opposition half has got to be preferable especially against a set of forwards like that.

Nick Kennedy had a good game until replaced by Delaney in the 70th minute, an exciting prospect. Naka led from the front as usual, with Sheasby making some very hard yards. Darren Edwards had a good game, some sharp handling in those mitts and obviously learning from Rob Howley’s visit on the quick taps. It is hard for a scrummie to look brilliant behind a pack going backwards, or at least under as much pressure as ours was.

Penalty try continues to be our highest try-scorer against Glaws, with Gomarsall appearing to deliberately punch the ball out of Horak’s hands. I caught the replay after the game, shot from the referee’s view and it was more of a fumble from Horak. Nonetheless, it was a deserved slice of luck for all the handling infringements.

Strudders was kept honest all afternoon, but put in a huge amount of work all over the place. Bish did the Bish thing and was obviously doing it well given the vehemence of the Glaws pack to put some stud marks on him given the opportunity. Gussie was solid; there was one memorable moment when he seemed to be literally on the head of a Glaws player going forward, Paul’s feet were definitely nowhere near the ground. Daw, sin-bin apart, had a great game again and fully deserves his opportunity with Ireland next weekend. He will be missed though.

Henry Paul (or Paul Henry, as the announcer called him) was solid in defence but not spectacular. He didn’t get much chance to shine, as he was a target for the Doc’s affections on more than one occasion. Rossouw was pretty anonymous in the second half, with not much coming his way. Horak was sound under the high ball and made some clever and effective runs from deep.

Next weeks game at Bristol takes on even more significance now, a real bottom of the table clash following their resounding win over Newcastle yesterday. With Bath beating Sale, to prove the point that any team can win on the day and that margins are getting smaller in the ZP all the time.

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