Gutsy Gloucester dig deep to thwart rivals

RESURGENT Gloucester‘s impressive start to the season continued by winning a pulsating derby but the final score tells only half the story.

■By ROGER PANTING

Gloucester ………………….. 23pts

Tries: Thomas 54, Llewellyn 78 Conversions: Barton 54, 78 Penalties: Barton 31, 36, 38

Bath …………………………………5pts

Tries: Tuipulotu 40

For most of the first half, the recently vaunted Gloucester pack were battered to such an extent a boxing referee would have stopped the contest.

Unfathomably Bath failed to score until near half-time and that score was the only one they could manage as five times they were held up over the line against a side that conceded 22 penalties and picked up three yellow cards.

Bath’s head of rugby Johann van Graan said: “I’m frustrated. We created so many opportunities but didn’t finish them and if you don’t finish them you can’t build pressure.

“Parts of our game are working but we’ll have to work harder at how we get the ball to the floor when we get over the line.”

Bath have now conceded 126 points in losing their last three fixtures but this one was entirely of their own making. Their forwards won enough ball to win three games but there is an old adage that if your pack secures the majority of possession, your half-backs should seal the deal.

On the night nothing could have been further from the truth with both skipper Ben Spencer and Finn Russell failing miserably. As captain, Spencer should have chosen better options; a few kicks at goal would have helped while Russell made numerous errors rors with the back division incapable of stringing enough passes together er to make it count against 13 men.

Of those 13, fullback George Barton was the stand-out whilst it took all the doggedness of back rowers Jac Morgan and Jack Clement to allow Gloucester to stay in the fight with two surges from the Welshman in the second half bringing the crowd to its feet.

Gloucester had the better of the early exchanges before Bath suffered a huge blow when Santi Carreras, slipped and looked to have seriously damage his knee.

Remarkably that setback was the spur for Bath to dominate. Kepueli Tuipulotu and Enoch Opoku-Gyamfi were both awarded tries only for them to be ruled out by the TMO. In addition Gloucester’s Ollie Thorley and Ciaran Knight were both yellow-carded for persistent team infringements as the hosts conceded 11 penalties in the first 27 minutes.

Gloucester could scarcely believe their luck and it was they who picked up the first points when Barton knocked over a penalty after Guy Pepper was offside. Barton kicked two more in quick succession before Bath got on the score sheet when Tuipulotu finished off a driving line-out to leave them trailing 9-5 at the interval.

After the restart, Will Joseph became the third Gloucester to be yellow-carded as the centre deliberately knocked on, but again Bath butchered their opportunities and were made to pay as a rejuvenated Gloucester found their second wind.

Caolan Englefield and Clement combined for Freddie Thomas to force his way over before.

Bath suffered another blow when Pepper was helped off forcing Louie Hennessey, to pack down in the back row and their miserable night was complete when Max Llewellyn powered over.

Force of nature: Freddie Thomas breaks through to score Gloucester’s first try

PICTURES: Getty Images

Winners: Max Llewellyn celebrates his late try

CLOSE-UP

GEORGE BARTON team and position V SANTI CARRERAS team and position

Barton has been a revelation this season and he continued his progress with an error-free display. He began confidently with a couple of decent touchfinders and was assured in every facet including knocking over four vital kicks. Former Gloucester favourite, Carreras, had a miserable night on his return. An early kick was charged down before he was forced off.