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Bloodied Gloucester make dramatic winning start to life after Cipriani
Gloucester put Danny Cipriani’s departure from the club well and truly behind them as they recorded a stunning 38-34 Heineken Champions Cup victory over Ulster. John Cooney looked to have inspired a memorable Ulster victory, but Gloucester triumphed through substitute fly-half George Barton’s try five minutes into stoppage time.
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England international Cipriani left Gloucester with immediate effect earlier this week, ending a two-and-a-half-year stint in the west country. And how Gloucester responded, delivering arguably their best performance under head coach George Skivington just six days after they were routed 55-10 by Lyon.
Gloucester conceded 17 points while their Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin, and it looked like proving costly until Barton came up trumps. Ulster saw touch downs by Cooney, full-back Michael Lowry and their former Gloucester fly-half Billy Burns, in addition to a penalty try, while Cooney added three conversions and two penalties.
Gloucester had two penalty tries, with Barton, Rees-Zammit and centre Mark Atkinson touching down, while fly-half Lloyd Evans kicked three conversions and a penalty. Gloucester revived hopes of progressing in this season’s tournament, but Ulster are pretty much down and out following two defeats.
Skivington made 12 changes from the side crushed by Lyon, with only full-back Kyle Moyle, prop Ciaran Knight and captain Lewis Ludlow remaining. Burns, meanwhile, was among four switches in an Ulster side that also saw a start for Ireland back-row forward Jordi Murphy.
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Wow! What a try that is from @gloucesterrugby 🔥Brilliant creativity in broken play, a sensational pass by Mark Atkinson, and Louis Rees-Zammit does what he does!#HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/jMOowl4302
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) December 19, 2020
Gloucester showed no sign of any hangover from their drubbing in Lyon, and they went ahead in the seventh minute through a cleverly-crafted try. Centre Chris Harris made initial ground, then full-back Kyle Moyle cut a superb attacking angle before Rees-Zammit applied a quality finish on his return to club colours following Wales’ Autumn Nations Cup campaign.
Evans converted from the touchline, but it proved a short-lived advantage as Ulster drew level from their first attack. Impressive phase play tested Gloucester’s defence before Burns skipped through a huge gap from 10 metres out to touch down against his former club, with Cooney converting.
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Evans restored Gloucester’s advantage through a short-range penalty before Ulster paid a hefty price for collapsing successive mauls close to their line. Referee Alex Ruiz sin-binned hooker Rob Herring for the first one, then lock Alan O’Connor received a yellow card after he pulled down the next one, with Gloucester awarded a penalty try and Ulster temporarily down to 13 men.
But Gloucester could capitalise on their numerical advantage, failing to score a point before both Ulster forward returned. Cooney kicked a penalty to cut a gap, and he also had a penalty chance from just inside his own half, but the ball fell over as he ran up, and with the allocated kicking time expired, Gloucester were awarded a scrum.
Burns made another break on the stroke of half-time, but Gloucester snuffed out the danger and took a 17-10 lead into the interval. Gloucester, with early sunshine being replaced by driving rain, took just two minutes of the second period to extend their lead.
And again it was their forwards that did the damage, relentlessly driving a close-range lineout before Atkinson joined the charge and touched down for a try that Evans converted via the crossbar into the face of a gusting wind.
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Ulster needed a response, and it arrived eight minutes later when their backs carved open Gloucester’s defence and Lowry applied an outstanding finish. Cooney’s conversion cut the gap to seven points. It got even better for Ulster approaching the hour-mark when they gained a penalty try following a deliberate knock-on by Rees-Zammit.
It meant the Gloucester wing was sin-binned and Ulster gained seven points following lengthy debate between Ruiz and television match official Rowan Kitt. Cooney then scored a try that he converted, before a second penalty try for Gloucester was awarded after substitute Ethan McIlroy deliberately knocked on and became his team’s third player to be yellow-carded, then Barton struck.
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10 points in less than 10 minutes for John Cooney 🔥
And 24 unanswered points from @UlsterRugby as they turn this clash on its head 💪
Will they hold on?#HeinekenChampionsCup https://t.co/ISVPgdVp2m
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) December 19, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Who's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
72 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
32 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
32 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
72 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
32 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
4 Go to comments