Chapman comes on to break the gloom

By ROGER PANTING

Gloucester…….22pts

Tries: Varney 24, Tuisue 63, Socino 68, Chapman 76

Conversions: Carreras 76

Bordeaux………. 17pts

Tries: Falatea 2, Willis 38

Conversions: Holmes 2, 38

Penalties: Holmes 21

ON the evidence of this encounter, neither side are likely to be high in the betting to win this European competition.

Gloucester will no doubt be the happier by turning around a dreary effort in the first hour by scoring three tries in the final quarter to win an error-ridden match but their supporters will be worried that if there is a repeat of this performance in their back to back matches with Leinster then the scoreline could easily turn ugly.

The fortunate victory must be put into perspective as it was obtained against a Bordeaux side missing nine players from their last league encounter with Brive including their talisman, Matthieu Jalibert.

For most of the game, Gloucester looked as though they would pay for their decision to leave their best attacker, Louis Rees-Zammit, their most potent forward, Ruan Ackermann and their marquee player, Adam Hastings, all on the sidelines as they struggled to play with any fluency.

As a result, Gloucester had to rely on their formidable front row who battered their opponents at every scrum, the irrepressible efforts of hooker, Santiago Socino, and the introduction of replacement, Albert Tuisue, who got his side moving forward with purpose after a static first half display.

Gloucester's head coach, George Skivington said:” We are really excited about Albert as he's continually learning the way we play and he made a brilliant impact today. We were sticky in the first half and were slow in supporting linebreaks and getting to the breakdown.

“They seemed to take every opportunity when they got near our line but at half-time we didn't panic and worked our way into the game by grinding them down.

“We found a way to win but lots weren't perfect and we know we've got to do a lot better but we are trying to develop a different style although it's not the finished article.”

Bordeaux came with a limited game plan and they had difficulty in exe- cuting it with their scrum under so much pressure.

However former Wasps No. 8, Tom Willis and scrum-half, Maxime Lucu performed heroics from a perpetually retreating scrum to keep the French in the driving seat for a substantial period.

They took an early lead when Sipili Falatea caught the defence napping by bursting through a weak tackle from Freddie Clarke with the Gloucester players seemingly half-asleep.

Zack Holmes converted and added a penalty to give his side a useful 10-point advantage and Gloucester badly needed a wake-up call.

They got one when Socino made a telling burst to create the opportunity for Stephen Varney to race in from 25 metres.

However the straightforward conversion for Santiago Carreras was charged down before Gloucester's miserable first half-performance worsened when they conceded a second try.

Willis burst away from a scrum 20 metres out to take his side close to the opposition line and when the ball was recycled, he was on hand to force his way over with a conversion from Holmes giving the French a 17-5 interval advantage.

Holmes missed an opportunity to extend that lead by sending a penalty wide and that was the nearest either side came to scoring in a featureless third quarter.

Gloucester then suffered an injury blow when Fraser Balmain was stretchered off with a leg injury before coming back into contention when Tuisue crashed over. Gloucester now looked a different side with the introduction of Billy Twelvetrees and Charlie Chapman and were rewarded with their third try when Socino finished off their trademark driving line-out before Chapman supported a break from Matias Alemanno to score the match-winner and with it a scarcely deserved bonus point.