By MHIAS
September 16 2002

On Sunday, at a windy Kingston Park, Gloucester managed to keep up their winning streak with a closely fought victory. The deciding moment in the game was a last gasp penalty kick from Henry Paul, which he cooly converted to finish the tie and send Gloucester home happy. Newcastle 19-22 Gloucester. A fair few Gloucester fans made the 5 hour trip up to Newcastle, and they may have been a little dissapointed at the quality of the rugby. However, all Gloucester fans will know that a win is a win away from home. Rob Andrew, however, can't accept a loss, even if it is a close one against the newly crowned 'best team in Europe', again complaining after the match.

The game started pretty poorly, and it continued in that way, as the game turned in to a kicking showpiece. After 2 kicks apiece between Mercier and Wilkinson, the scores were levelled at 6-6, and it took some time for Gloucester to break the deadlock. After some sustained presssure, Gloucester were handed a penalty. Andy Gomarsall took it quick and stormed through, but Hugh Vyvyan was judged as having blocked the run, so was shown the yellow card.

Gloucester began dominating while they were a man up, and after more sustained pressure Junior Paramore took the ball from the base of the scrum and stormed over, with Mercier converting. The Gloucester fans may have been forgiven for thinking that we would begin to rip them apart, but that something we lack away from home continued, as the trusty boot of Jonny Wilkinson added two more penalties. This left the Falcons just 1 point adrift going in to the second half.

Wilkinson was the main man for Newcastle, and it seemed that when he wasn't involved in the play there was no way of breaking through. With such a young side, it would be fair enough if the Newcastle fans were thinking that Rob Andrew had lost the plot, the rest of us have!

Even with Collazo in the bin, Newcastle still struggled. It wasn't until Ludo Mercier was taken off because of an injury that they seemed to be more of a threat. With Henry Paul now at fly half, and Delport at full back, this made way for the magical talents of Marcel Garvey and James Simpson-Daniel. Henry paul added two penalties himself, to put Gloucester to what they would have felt was a pretty safe score, 7 points ahead.

However, by this time Epi Taione had come come on to the pitch. He was the villain for Newcastle the week before, but was their hero this time. he broke through the line and ran to score under the posts, despite Andy Gomarsall doing all he could to at least make the conversion a little more difficult. For Jonny Wilkinson though, the conversion was simple, and he had seemed to have earned the Falcon's a valued 2 points.

Newcastle won the restart, but Gloucester continued to apply pressure. Henry Paul missed an attempted drop goal which you think Ludo would have got, but he made up for it after a stupid mistake by the Newcastle players. They won the ball and tried to play it out of defence, but once they were in the ruck situation the player failed to release the ball, awarding Gloucester a penalty to win the match.

Henry paul stepped up cooly, and slotted the kick from a pretty dfficult position. It was indeed the last action of the match, and Gloucester had the long trip to look forward to knowing that they were top of the league.

Newcastle 19-22 Gloucester

On the Euro Rugby rankings, Gloucester are now the top teamin Europe! Click here to view it: Euro Rugby Rankings

This Thursday a new rugby newspaper is coming out, called the Rugby Times. It will be available at all good newsagents, and may be worth a read. Especially with Jon Callard airing his views!.