Gloucester
No excuses - not good enough, Glaws
BR - not happy
By Cherry Picker
April 10 2011
If all they can get from a game at the third bottom club is a losing bonus point, what chance have Gloucester of achieving anything in their next two away games – at Leicester and Saracens? In theory, the answer is none. But one of the beauties of sport, and rugby in particular, is its unpredictability and losing at Sale means they must now do well in more difficult games.
There’s no point blaming poor refereeing decisions or finding any other excuses – Glaws were as poor as the 36-31 scoreline suggests at Edgeley Park.
Scoring three away tries is all very well, but conceding four against a side which has struggled all season is not good enough.
Yes, one of Sale’s tries should have been disallowed after the ref missed an accidental offside, but it’s not as if Glaws otherwise deserved to win. Sale played better and got their reward as Glaws fell for a couple of try-scoring sucker punches.
And to make matters worse, with Glaws on the threshold of allowing a potential match-winner in Nicky Robinson to leave Kingsholm, Charlie Hodgson showed how much a good No10 can influence a game with a masterful performance.
Now Glaws go into a three-game run which will decide their season without the sort of cushion the Sale game could have provided – Leicester away, Northampton at home and Saracens away in eight days is hardly a dream run of fixtures. In fact, if they are as slack as they were at Sale, it will turn into a nightmare.
Paul Williams scored two Sale tries, Will Addison and Hodgson, who also kicked 16 points, getting the others, while Tim Molenaar and Jonny May got on the sheet for Glaws, a late penalty try giving them a losing bonus after Freddie Burns and Tim Taylor between them matched Hodgson’s kicking return.
A bitterly disappointed Bryan Redpath told the BBC: "I thought the referee had a terrible decision, the try just before half time was a clear obstruction and seemingly his mic had broken and the touch judge said that he couldn't hear him.
"We leaked two or three soft tries, so we can't keep using someone else externally as an excuse - a point away from home may seem a good point, but I see it as an opportunity wasted.
"We need to be street wise, we need to be smart and we need to understand away games. We need to understand what pressure is put on us and our game and we've got to learn and keep learning."
Learning at places like Leicester is doing it the hard way.
Glaws are still seven points clear of fifth top London Irish and have a game in hand, but playing three games against top four teams in eight days is hardly a bonus.
At the moment, it looks more like a potential minefield.
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10/04/2011 11:03
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And they are NOT colleagues, but I know what you mean.
