By Chris Harris
December 4 2002

No one could make a good prediction about the game at Kingsholm this Saturday. Three weeks earlier Gloucester had trounced Irish away from home after loosing their last three visits to the Madjetski stadium, and now Gloucester were on home turf. Irish though had since had victory over Leicester and an close away draw at Bristol involving a last minute try for the ones down the M5, and Gloucester had been beaten badly at Welford Road and were very mediocre against Leeds. Surely Gloucester couldn't loose at home though to a team with such a mixed season such as the Irish? Or would they romp home like three weeks earlier?

It turned out to be a dull game with the only bright points being early on
the second half and the last few minutes of the game. The Irish put
pressure on during the game but it was contained by the Gloucester defence,
and most of Gloucester's efforts fell apart when more than two passes were
attempted. The game was dominated by kicking, which worked in Gloucesters
favour as their lineout was working well. They certainly had more posession
and if they had their earlier season form they would be expected to kill
off the game. However by making mistakes and with Irish pushing the offside
to the limit (some may say over) nothing seemed to work.

Gloucester only looked good in the maul, and this is where all 3 tries came
from. The first came in the middle of the first half, with an attacking
lineout on the 22, Gloucester drove all the way with Boer emerging with the
ball. Mercier got the conversion, and he and Everitt exchanged penalties to
give a half time score of 13-3. Gloucester lost Jake early in the second
half, but Vickery came on soon after and seemed to inspire something for a
little while. Mercier kicked to the corner again and the rolling maul
started again, this time Paramore did the honours. Ludo missed the
conversion. Penalties were then exchanged giving Gloucester an 18-6 lead.

On the restart though things changed. Gloucester let it bounce and Irish
grabbed it and arrived in numbers. The ball was fed out to Sackey who beat
Henry Paul with a jinking run to score. Everitt converted. Glaws were not
collapsing that easily though. Another maul started in the Irish half and
surged towards the line. It became a ruck just a metre out. Gomarsall was
ready to feed the ball out to the Glaws backs who had a large overlap and
an offside Irish player knocked it out of his hands. Gloucester were
awarded the penalty try which Mercier converted. This was a little
contraversial, but it seemed fair from where I was standing.

Later on though Glaws made another big cock up in midfield with a similar
result to before... the ball was passed out to Sackey again who did the
honours, with Everitt converting again. Irish sensed a major upset at
25-20, but it was not to be and that remained the final score.