Gloucester ………23pts
Tries: Blake 30
Penalties: Carreras 6, 18, 34, 49, 60, 65
Ospreys…………… 13pts
Tries: Giles 13
Conversions: O Williams 13
Penalties: O Williams 22, 40
ONCE again the goal-kicking of Santiago Carreras was the key factor in Gloucester progressing in the European Challenge Cup.
Last Friday, the Argentinian international fullback kicked 15 points in their 30-25 win over Castres and he followed up with another 18 points as his side won an attritional game at Kingsholm to qualify for a home semi-final.
Gloucester were the better side but they were aided by an inept effort from Ospreys, which drew criticism from their head coach Toby Booth.
“Gloucester deserved to win but I'm bitterly disappointed and frustrated by elements of our performance,” Booth said. “We didn't stand up as well as we should. We had an opportunity to move forward in this competition and didn't take it.
“We weren't as good as we could have been and needed to control the environment better as some of our offsides were needless.
“They got seven to 10 points in front and when that happens it's difficult to claw back as they continued to squeeze us and we couldn't break it.”
Ospreys needed to be near their best but they well off the pace. Their lineout malfunctioned, their scrum was surprisingly second best and they had no-one to compete with the aggression and ball-carrying efforts of Zach Mercer and Ruan Ackermann.
Furthermore every 50/50 decision seemed to go against them as overfussy French referee Pierre Brousset penalised them at will.
Despite this, Ospreys still had the more creative attackers in fullback, Jack Walsh and lively wings, Keelan Giles and Luke Morgan and put a limited Gloucester to shame in terms of entertainment value.
The hosts were content to boot the ball skywards, Stephen Varney being the main protagonist, with Adam Hastings also overdoing the chip ahead in promising positions to the frustration of home supporters who wanted Jonny May and Carreras to see more of the ball.
A penalty from Carreras gave Gloucester an early lead but they soon fell behind to a brilliant counter-attacking try. On halfway, Hastings overhit a chip ahead, which Walsh collected at pace to run 45 metres before providing Giles with an easy run-in.
Carreras kicked a second penalty but a poor straight into touch clearance from Varney then gifted the visitors an attacking platform from where Williams extended his side's lead with a straightforward penalty.
However it was Ospreys who were the more ill-disciplined and they were made to pay when Seb Blake finished off a driving lineout.
Carreras missed the conversion but succeeded with his third penalty after Ospreys had made his task easier by losing 10 metres for back chat to the referee.
With the last kick of the half, Williams knocked over his second penalty to leave Gloucester with a 14-13 advantage.
The second half was largely a non-event with neither side threatening the try-line with Ospreys's skipper, Justin Tipuric, continuing to question the referee's decisions.
It was to no avail as Carreras kicked three more penalties to seal victory with no response from the visitors as Owen Williams crucially hit a post when one was badly needed.
Fly-half Hastings said: “It's good to get 80 minutes under my belt, I've been out a while so I was blowing a bit. The atmosphere was brilliant, especially in the last 20 when we needed them.
“We'll take the win and have lots to work on going back into the Premiership now which gives us a chance to build on this victory. It would be brilliant to go all the way to the final at Tottenham and win it.”
Ospreys defence coach Mark Jones said: “I'm really proud of the effort, there was no lack of that, and there was some quality there in patches, but giving away 15 or 16 penalties, and the unforced errors around different areas of our game, means it's going to be very difficult to win away from home in a quarter-final.
“You get what you deserve sometimes and we probably deserve to come out on the losing side based on the penalty count and the errors.
“We've played better, and we knew we needed to play well to win away from home.”
