DR - prepared

By Cherry Picker
March 18 2009

With only one home game left in the regular Guinness Premiership season, Gloucester can’t afford to relax as they go for a hat trick of top-place finishes. But after the experiences of the last two years, finishing top is perhaps not their top priority – the top two will do, and failing that anywhere in the top four will have to be acceptable. The players at Kingsholm are keen to qualify for the play-offs so they get the chance to put the memories of the last two years behind them.
Olly Morgan (right) says he and his team-mates want to put the “chokers” tag they have been lumbered with away for good.
He told the Citizen: "A lot of the guys want to prove people wrong. We've been talked about as chokers and that's always at the back of every single player's mind in the squad, not just the XV but the whole of the 40-man squad.
"We all want to prove people wrong and, sure, we are in that line of winning silverware."
That silverware includes the EDF, in which Glaws play Ospreys at Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena at the end of the month, but before that Glaws clash with Wuss at Sixways on Sunday knowing that a win will virtually guarantee a top four place.
But that isn’t enough – they want a home tie in the play-off semis, so they want to be in the top two, and Luke Narraway says that to achieve that they need to target four wins out of four - a tall order on their current inconsistent form.
If and when they do reach the play-offs, coach Dean Ryan (not Ryan Lamb, honest. Well, not yet anyway) says he feels his team will be better prepared than in the last two years.
He told the Citizen: “Our experiences come from not being mature enough to close games. We'll hope to be a little bit more experienced when we find ourselves in the play-offs – that we're able to be more mature.
"As far as I'm concerned, in the natural league season I still prefer to be first if we can. If we can't, then top two."
Over to you Glaws. 

Glaws need to rid themselves of "choker" tag

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 18/03/2009 11:23

Shedloads
18/03/2009 11:23

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cheerycherry
18/03/2009 12:56

Top two is the target but Glaws have some tough games left. Franklin Gardens is not the place to go needing a result and Wasps will have a point to prove at the end of the season let alone the small matter of Wuss home and away. If Glaws can finish top two that will do nicely but it will go down to the wire.

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Two Sheds
18/03/2009 13:14

Time to find the consistency that's been missing most of the season.

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ARFC Warrior
20/03/2009 13:51

Go for top 4 and give us the points this weekend.

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cheerycherry
20/03/2009 14:03

I am actually quietly confident this year. There are some big name players with plenty of nous and experience. Considering Somerville and Spencer have a hundred + All Black caps between them then that is a lot of leadership to bring to a side that sometimes gives the impression of lacking ideas when the pressure is on. I have always maintained that apart from the playoff final against Tigers where Glaws really didnt turn up and sat in the stand I said Glaws had lost before kickoff, it is not so much Glaws choking more a case of players losing the ability to think calmly under pressure which has cost Glaws. That is the key ingredient that the experience of those two will bring... Hopefully!

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ARFC Warrior
22/03/2009 18:14

Thank you very much.

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