Gloucester
No excuses as Glaws finish second in derby mudbath
By Cherry Picker
January 6 2008
There are no excuses from Gloucester for their 10-5 derby defeat at the Wreck, where Barff chalked up their 17th consecutive win over their old rivals. Coach Dean Ryan says the result and the game will have to go down as part of the experiences of the season for Glaws, and hopefully they can learn from it.
Losing their two first-choice wingers before the kick-off didn’t help, of course, but the conditions meant it wasn’t going to be a winger’s game anyway, so the chances are that the loss of JSD and Big Les didn’t affect the result.
The pre-match deluge meant the pitch was the same for both teams, but whatever the result perhaps people will be asking whether the game would have gone ahead if it wasn’t going to be shown live of Sky.
As with footy, of course, rugby is not self-financing, and if Sky have a match scheduled and have paid big money for the rights, they will be keen on it going ahead.
The fact that a rearranged game in better conditions might have provided an even better spectacle for the viewers doesn’t seem to come into it.
Friday’s game was absorbing, but not the type to attract new fans to rugby. It was played in the fight spirit and, in the big picture underlined the strength of the club game in this part of the country.
Perhaps it was best summed up by my other half, who admits she isn't an expert on the game, who said at the final whistle: "I wouldn't like to be married to any of them, having to wash those muddy costumes tonight."
Glaws got a losing bonus point out of the game, which is better than nothing, but they were beaten in the forwards and out-thought in the backs.
To put it bluntly, well though Glaws defended at times, Barff deserved their win.
Coach Dean Ryan told the Citizen: "I'm not satisfied with the bonus point, but when the margins in a game are so small, you have to accept that."It's not something that affects the bigger picture of what we're trying to do. There wasn't a huge amount we could've changed out there.
"Today will not have a bearing on the Ospreys game. We've got to prepare right and hope that we get a little dry weather between now and then."
On Ryan Lamb, who was replaced by try-scorer Chris Paterson in the second half, he said: "These types of games are part of Ryan's ongoing development. Nothing he did was at the root of any of our problems."I wouldn't react to make changes anyway and Chris is still finding his way with us."We needed someone else to do something different and that's why I used the majority of our bench."Paterson’s try was a gem, but Barff had gone ahead through a Joe Maddock try and some good kicking by Olly Barklay and held on for their win.
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