Narraway - warning

By Cherry Picker
February 16 2011

Having demonstrated that they can win expansively or win ugly, Gloucester’s welcome dose of versatility will be put to a stern test at Kingsholm this weekend when bruised London Irish return on a revenge mission. Victory for the cherry and whites will mark them as real Premiership contenders rather than inconsistent pretenders.

There’s a long way to go, of course, and nobody can claim that Glaws are the finished article – but they are a far better side than they were at times in the first half of the season and Irish will put that improvement to the test.
They were far from pleased with their 41-8 LV=Cup humiliation at Kingsholm a couple of weeks ago, and the one thing on their minds on Friday night will be revenge.
Glaws, of course, go into the game minus one of their most influential players, James Simpson-Daniel, but the news is not as bad as it might be.
Stretchered off at Wasps after scoring the match-winning try, his ankle injury is not as bad as feared – but it’s still bad enough to keep him out for about three weeks and there’s no doubt at all that he will be missed, specially with another potential match-winner, Lesley Vainikolo, out long-term through injury.
There was more good news for Glaws this week when the citing against Nicky Robinson after his tackle on scrum half Darren Allinson in that big win over Irish was dismissed by a disciplinary panel, so he is available after his kicks helped earn the win at Wasps.
Stand-in skipper last weekend was Luke Narraway, and he was as pleased as punch with the style of the success as well as the points it earned.
he told the Citizen:  "I think what we're adding now is a few different strings to our bow. We beat London Irish last week by chucking the ball around and scoring 40 points.
"On Sunday we didn't throw the ball around or score 40, but we've won away from our pack's hard graft work, our nine and ten steering the ship and our centres getting us over the gain line.
"I think if we're honest with ourselves as a team in the past we might not have been able to do that. We know now we're capable of doing it.
"There's a lot of confidence going through the players, but there's a thin line between confidence and arrogance, and we've got to make sure we're the right side of it.
"This game has a horrible knack of biting you on the backside, and again there's plenty of things for us still to improve."
Realistic talk there from the big man, and realism is just one of the many qualities Glaws will need when Irish come at them with all guns blazing on Friday night. It's when Glaws need to provide an answer to the question - are you prentenders, or contenders?

Are you contenders or pretenders, Glaws?

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 16/02/2011 11:28

Shedloads
16/02/2011 11:28

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