Monday, January 09, 2006

Winning Football

Saracens 9 – Gloucester 19

A reasonably rare but hugely welcome away win ushered in the new year for Gloucester RFC and this supporter was mightily impressed with a rugged forward performance that the likes of Gadd, Teague and Preedy would endorse. Alex Brown had a towering match in the engine room, controlling the lines out with ease and putting in the hard yards with ball in hand as well as enhancing his reputation for ruthless defensive work. Mefin Davies is enjoying possibly his longest run in the starting fifteen and I appreciated his adherence to the basics yesterday, particularly in the loose where his used all his experience to retain the ball skilfully. He is thriving. Gloucester now lie fourth in the league with ten games to play, six of which are at Stade Kingsholm. With the gap between us and the fifth placed club, London Irish standing at a healthy six points, our next match, against the exiles, takes on much importance. We have a fine opportunity to consolidate and cement ourselves in that all important top-four. All is well, it seems.