JSD - try

By Cherry Picker
January 24 2009

Gloucester might not have been as bad as they have been in one or two recent games, but they still weren’t good enough to avoid defeat at Biarritz on Friday night, let alone get the bonus-point victory they needed to have a chance of staying in the Heineken Cup.

The French side scored tries through Imanol Harinordoquy, former Gloucester No9 Dimitri Yachvili and Julien Peyrelongue, the Glaws reply from James Simpson-Daniel never enough to earn a result.
Mike Tindall pulled out of the game before the start through injury, and things went from bad to worse in driving rain.
When Traille got away with a trip on Iain Balshaw, Glaws might have known it was all over and dean Ryan told the BBC: “When you are playing in a game like this with small margins, a deliberate trip is a red card. I didn't see it as anything else.
"But we have to accept we're out of Europe. The last three weeks we have played in horrendous weather conditions and we ran the ball more than we should have.
"We have to play better than that in those conditions. We've got to work on our kicking game and we always pride ourselves on moving the ball around.
"But that has come crashing down around us in the last few weeks and we are sad to leave the Heineken Cup.
“We've not been good enough over the last two weeks to warrant that. We could have offered something to the latter stages on different days.
"But it has been highlighted over the last two weeks that we've not had our best players available and it had not been the best conditions for us to play our best rugby.
"We have to accept that and leave the Heineken Cup."

Hopefully, though, lessons will be learned and taken into the Guinness Premiership, starting next weekend at home to London Irish, when revenge for a bad away defeat is desperately needed if Gloucester's season isn't to go down the plughole.

Goodbye Heineken Cup, Glaws need Guinness revival

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 24/01/2009 12:34

Shedloads
24/01/2009 12:34

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cheerycherry
24/01/2009 19:39

"... Running the ball too much..." compared to the gameplan alternative which seems to involve booting possession down the middle of the pitch so that the opposition get free ball in their 22 then to make sure they dont waste the gifted possession, Glaws dont put any effort into chasing the kick. Yep can see how gifting the opposition free possession is going to win Glaws a Rugby match. Hopefully Ryan will realise before the season ends that Glaws are not skilled enough to play ten man Rugby. I can understand injuries are affecting the squad, particularly in the backrow, but that doesnt excuse the huge amount of basic errors that creep into Glaws' game when they play in the rain. Quite simply not good enough.

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