With less than a quarter of the game to go Gloucester were receiving the rugby lesson they deserved. They had failed to achieve two cohesive moves all evening. A strong scrum was followed by a sloppy knock-on. A neat lineout was made irrelevant by an errant pass. “Sticky” is how their head coach, George Skivington, described it.
The score read 17-5 in favour of Bordeaux Bègles and perhaps the French side thought that they had the game won. They reverted to a rudimentary style of play and merely shovelled short balls for lethargic forwards. Gloucester refused to lie down and accept their fate.
