By Cherrybomb
November 17 2002

As a spectacle the game was never going to be brilliant, with top players missing from both sides. Despite an early try Gloucester couldn't keep back the rampant Leicester players, but Gloucester clung on to get a survivor bonus point. Leicester 20-15 Gloucester. For the first time in years, Gloucester were possibly favourites heading in to the Welford Road clash. Leicester has a lot of big name players out, and had been playing reasonably poorly for their high standards.

Gloucester started the strongest though, and got an early try. Possibly it was the early try that made things harder for Gloucester later in the day. Clive Stuart-Smith ripped out a good pass to Terry Fanolua, who broke the line. Then Delport continued the move with more running, before releasing Henry Paul. He looked like he didn't have the legs for the corner, but he cleverly sent a supporting Jake Boer over the line. Mercier missed the conversion.

Sam Vesty, in for Tim Stimpson as kicker, had his first penalty just minutes later. He made no mistake to bring Leicester close to the Gloucester score, 3-5. And it was Vesty who had a big part to play in Leicester's first try.

The young fly-half kicked to the corner from another penalty. The Leicester lineout move worked to perfection, and the driving maul pushed Gloucester backwards. The ball was thrown across the line and Leon Lloyd scored in the corner in typical fashion. Vesty however missed the conversion.

Then came possibly the turning point of the match, when Ludovic Mercier picked up an injury, and had to be replaced. Chris Catling was the man to come on at full back, pushing Henry Paul in to the fly-half position.

The next try was again from pure forward attacking power. As the ball was held up in the maul, the Leicester pack drove over. Josh Kronfeld was the eventual scorer. But Vesty again missed.

From then on it was about Gloucester's defence. And defend they did. Despite pressure not felt by the Gloucester players this season, they managed to stop Leicester from running away from it. Every move or run was stopped by last gasp efforts, showing the other teams in the premiership once again that it is going to take something special to beat us. And it was probably the point that we were away from home that stopped us winning this match.

Despite the heroic defence Leicester scored again. And again it was from a maul, and again Kronfeld was awarded the score.

Half time score: Leicester 20-5

And after half time it was all about denfence again. This time however Gloucester were rewarded, when Terry Fanolua scored picked up a loose ball and dived under the posts. Henry Paul scored the needed conversion.

Still Gloucester defended, and were rewarded with a bonus point that the defence itself deserved. Henry Paul slotted the enalty which brought Gloucester within a try. However there simply wasn't time.

Final Score: Leicester 20-15 Gloucester