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Adam Hastings misses late penalty as Gloucester defeated by Northampton

By PA
GLOUCESTER, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 23: Adam Hastings of Gloucester looks anxious as he misses with the last minute penalty, which would have have won the match for Gloucester during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Gloucester Rugby and Northampton Saints at Kingsholm Stadium on December 23, 2023 in Gloucester, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Adam Hastings missed a 45-metre angled penalty with the last kick of the match as Gloucester suffered a 31-29 Gallagher Premiership defeat to Northampton before a crowd of over 15,000 at Kingsholm.

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Hastings’ failure took Gloucester’s losing run in the league to seven games but it was rough justice on them for they had dominated a one-sided second half.

When the hosts trailed 24-7 after 35 minutes, another loss looked a near certainty but a yellow card for Saints centre Rory Hutchinson saw an instant change in momentum as Gloucester scored 22 unanswered points.

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Freddie Clarke, Chris Harris, Matias Alemanno and Santiago Carreras scored their tries with Adam Hastings adding three conversions and a penalty.

Curtis Langdon scored two tries for Northampton, with Alex Mitchell, Alex Coles and Tom Litchfield also on the try-scoring sheet as Fin Smith added three conversions.

Northampton’s early pressure was rewarded with a fourth-minute try from Mitchell. Saints turned down a kickable penalty in favour of more attacking options and it proved the correct call when the scrum-half’ s outstretched hand proved just enough to secure the touchdown.

Saints continued their explosive start to score a second try within three minutes when Coles crashed over as Gloucester struggled to cope with their opponents’ power.

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Aided by a number of penalty awards in their favour, the home side gained a foothold in the match but thrice in quick succession, their famed driving line-out was thwarted by solid defence from Saints.

The visitors soon illustrated how to capitalise from a close-range line-out. Skilful interplay from centres Hutchinson and Fraser Dingwall took them into the home 22 to establish a position from where Langdon powered over.

Gloucester desperately needed a response and they got one when they changed their tactics from a line-out. This time they ignored their customary drive to spin the ball wide and confuse the Northampton defence for Clarke to take advantage and score.

The hosts controlled the second quarter but their opponents broke out to score their bonus-point try. Excellent handling helped George Furbank and Tommy Freeman to make ground down the left and when the ball was recycled, Langdon powered past two defenders to score his second try.

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As half-time approached, Hutchinson was sin-binned for a high tackle on Ollie Thorley for Gloucester to capitalise immediately with a try from Harris to leave them trailing 24-14 at the interval.

With Hutchinson still absent, Gloucester bombarded the visitors’ line and were able to reduce the arrears when Alemanno forced his way over.

Hutchinson returned but he could not shift the momentum back his side’s way as Gloucester took the lead for the first time when Carreras finished a flowing move for the bonus-point try.

Hastings converted and added a penalty to leave the hosts with a five-point lead going into the final quarter.

Out of the blue, Northampton regained the lead when they broke out of defence for Mitchell to send Litchfield racing into the corner, with Smith knocking over the match-winning conversion from the touchline.

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J
JW 36 minutes ago
'Razor's conservatism is in danger of halting New Zealand's progress'

BB didn't improve over the years, why should Jordan?


You've lost the plot of you think Love should be the fullback. That is waaay more out of leftfield than anything else I've heard.


I'm not sure Jordan can remain in the team either way. What it actually sounds like you're saying, is you want a balanced approach Jordan playing fullback next year, that he gets say 6 or 8 games through to the RC and should be looked at being in immediate contention with someone like Love, or whoever else, has played well, for the November tour.


I'm absolutely down with that. Jordan is going to have a full SR season for the first time next year, to work on facets of his game that he's never had analyzed before because of only being selected on the wing by the All Blacks. That change is huge. You can not underestimate the learning experience that this year would have been and how valuable (touch wood) and full season will be actually targeting what he felt were work ons, rather than just making stuff up or trying to improve on his strengths.


So, first of all, we should expect him to return better than how he finished, and then we'd need to see some further improvement (if it he doesn't just immediatly smash it) over July and the RC. That doesn't mean we need to see him doing what you say. He can get on great at the top level with a very limited kicking and passing game (which would be a huge improvement over BB who had a limited and innacurate kick/pass game), we need to see him comfortable with he can do in making the right decisions first and foremost. So I'd be very happy to see him working on his strength in contact under high balls and covering the backline, not see him kicking the ball down defenders throats, and trying more interplay on his returns. What I can't see, is him improving as a right winger. All his wing player success is in the style of a fullback. Probably only pure speed (working really hard to get his body/speed back to 100) would help him imo, and that's obviously a hindrance to his chances as a fullback.


TLDR; I think the poor counter attacking ability of the All Blacks has been one of the key reasons their standards have dipped over the years, and what you're suggesting is promoting that continuing. No thanks. This is not a discussion of specific players like you're making out, but of your mentality of the ABs essentially continuing with the dual playmaker setup.

219 Go to comments
O
OJohn 2 hours ago
Will overseas selection make the difference for British and Irish Lions?

The trouble with appointing a coach from one state that is not the Tahs, is that the p.... at the Tahs will start weedling away immediately on ways to undermine the non Tah coach.


It's what the private school toffs do. They have a born to rule mentality, even tho they are complete failures. That is why they will only tolerate Tah coaches or weak kiwis they know they can control. A kiwi on a million Australian dollars a year will do anything the largest franchise in Australia tells him to do. He's only here for the money.


That's why Ewen McKenzie was the ideal candidate, even tho Hooper and Beale still set out straight away to undermine him to get Cheika installed but the next best alternative is to have a group of coaches from some of the franchises, except the Tahs, (not the Western Force with kiwi Cron - who is hopeless), to keep the Tahs in their place. The Wallabies must also not have more than 3 Tah players in the squad. Otherwise they will start scheming again under instruction from the NSW administration. The Tahs have spent the last 20 years undermining the Wallabies to get more players than they deserved in the squad. Their NSW egos are more important to them than the Wallabies.


I can't see why a triumverate of Super Rugy coaches can't coach the Wallabies too. I could include MacKellar in there as well but he has shown himself to select on favoritism rather than ability based on the ridiculous number of sub standard Brumbies who got a game under Rennie. He's not much of a Queenslander but the Tahs will stab in the back in a flash too eventually.

74 Go to comments
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