What a difference 6 days makes. From the shambles at home to London Irish
where the backs looked like they had never met each other to a fantastic
statement of intent against Gloucester.
The match had been billed as Gloucester’s backs vs Leicester’s pack, but
Tigers backs found their stride in a 22-17 victory at Kingsholm.
Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves; there was still plenty
of rust on the engine, plenty of rough edges needing sanding down, plenty of
French polish for Cockerill to still apply.
Both their tries game from loose play.
The first an interception by Freddie Burns. Flood’s heir apparent and in Tigers sights,
apparently, he picked off a flat Flood pass and streaked away in the 9th
minute for the opening score. Flood was
aggrieved with a short advantage from referee Greg Garner.
It was Burns's only contribution on the night. He had a shocker with the boot, as did
replacement kicker Rob Cook, and it killed a lot of Gloucester’s momentum, it
stopped them building a lead at any stage.
In contrast Flood responded to his mistake well. It didn’t cow him and he kept playing aggressively
and close to the defence. He kicked his
goals well, 6/9 is a fine return if not spectacular, though the misses will
grate.
The second Gloucester score was just as opportune but did
require a touch more skill. Tigers by
this stage were 13-7 ahead after 2 Flood penalties and a terrific score from
Dan Bowden. While we're here let’s talk
about that; it all came from a scrum.
And that scrum came
from an exhilarating piece of forward interplay down the left touchline. Flood found Deacon on the half way line, his
inside line drew the man and he offloaded to an on rushing Waldrom. Waldrom then Kitchener passed a little early
for my taste but Ayerza now had it on the 22, in the excitement of all that
passing and running he lost his head and threw the miracle off load about 10
meters forward.
Some more context, we’d just pushed them off the last scrum,
we were in their heads. This time
Gloucester got the heel but was under pressure.
Robson just wanted to get it out, just get it away. He panicked and Ben Youngs was in like a shot
intercepting his pass.
With the Gloucester defence in disarray he found Salvi then
brother Tom Youngs on the charge. The
Cherry ‘n’ White defence never re-set properly and Flood was against Nick Wood
and lock Lua Lokotui, he danced in off his right foot to almost break the tackle
but Dan Bowden, so anonymous last week but so impressive this, was on his
shoulder for the back of the hand pass and the easy dive over for the try.
Back to Gloucester’s 2nd try; you can see why we
were confident, why we had our tails up and trying silly things. Confidence was seeping into our play and
visibly draining from Gloucester.
Quick
hands down the backline and a good Tom Croft impression from Jamie Gibson saw
the Tigers go from halfway to inside the 22 with clock as good as gone 40. Tigers were pouring forwards but all the
backs were in the ruck, Miles Benjamin ran a perfect line and was through the
hole looking, seeking, searching for the killer off load. But it wasn’t there. But he threw it any way.
Taken by Dawiduick he sent it to Trinder, only Dan Cole,
Marcos Ayerza and Kitchener were between Jonny May and the try line all 90
meters away. Trinder kicked
forward. The bounce was perhaps
fortuitous but there was no Tiger near enough to take advantage if we had got
the bounce.
The second half was a nervier affair as Tigers tightened up
and Gloucester desperately tried to hang on.
Gloucester pushed to 17-13 after Blaine Scully was adjudged to be holding
on; Billy Twelvetrees the third Gloucester kicker to have a crack at the posts
after Cook had missed an earlier attempt.
Time was beginning to run down, with 16 minutes left
Gloucester took Ben Youngs out at the back of a ruck following a Graham
Kitchener break and Toby Flood reduced the arrears to a point.
Four
minutes later Tigers should have been in the corner but an early pass from
Hamilton, a poor hand off from Scully and a great effort in defence from Cook
combined to keep Tigers out.
But Tigers moved ahead anyway, Gloucester fumbled the
lineout and disintegrated in the scrum.
A quick word here on advantage.
When the scrum wheels like that why is it not advantage, letting the
number 8 pick it up and score the try?
We had committed no offence so why can’t we walk over the line and score
a try? Another question for another day.
19-17 now to the visitors.
And it became 22-17 when the scrum wreaked more havoc with 5 minutes to
go. Tigers executed the current fad “choke”
tackle through Kitchener, Ayerza and Waldrom then marched the Gloucester pack
to gain the penalty reward.
Tigers had the chance to deny Gloucester the bonus point
after Gloucester pulled down the Tigers maul but Flood missed the kick. Gloucester had one last chance for victory.
Gloucester needed to be perfect and go from behind their own posts. They were for 3 minutes with the clock
dead. Then the mistake, a crossing penalty
and Tigers had won.
Graham Kitchener and Dan Cole were outstanding with
their contributions whilst Jamie Gibson had his best game in a Leicester shirt, I’m
still not a fan but he certainly played well here. Miles Benjamin has really found his grove;
his floating style is predicated on an understanding with the fly half and rest
of the team, after 4 straight starts he is finding that now.
There was such a vast improvement from 6 days previously how
much better can we get in the 9 days before we face Montpellier?
