We live in unpredictable times but to call Gloucester’s first win of the season a topsy-turvy affair is to do it scant justice. The first half was a Cherry and White-striped nightmare but, from the depths of 21-0 down at half-time, the home side staged their biggest-ever league comeback to secure an improbable bonus-point victory.
With all the day’s 48 points scored at one end on a still, mild afternoon it was a bizarre contest in multiple respects. Among the stats being bandied around before kick-off was Gloucester’s habit of starting well and Wasps tendency for second-half doggedness but those supposed roles were completely reversed as the 13-man visitors wilted in the face of a furious home revival.
There was even a fleeting moment, after two close-range pack scores had finally dragged Gloucester back in front, when Wasps threatened to score again right at the end. Ultimately, though, George Skivington the Cherry and Whites’ director of rugby felt able to express genuine pride at his team’s response and to blame the sub-par first 40 minutes on “a little bit of nerves and anticipation.”
To play or not to play was the question for all the nation’s sporting bodies over the weekend and Gloucester initially found an unusual solution: trot out on to the pitch for a respectful minute’s silence, sing God Save the King but then fail to turn up for the actual first half.
Hardest to stomach for the locals, at a venue which has long cherished its gnarled forwards was the relative lack of fire and brimstone emanating from the home pack. For much of the first 40 minutes Gloucester were outmuscled and, as a result, could not properly launch their gameplan.
Kicking away the majority of your possession is all very well if your set-piece and first-up defence is subsequently up the job. Instead it was Wasps who weathered a slightly tentative start of their own plus the loss of a tearful Matteo Minozzi, injured after just seven minutes, to take such a firm grip that even the Shed was reduced to virtual silence.
Even when Alfie Barbeary butchered a glorious early chance, spilling the ball with the line at his mercy and then had another potential score ruled out for crossing, it made little immediate difference. A dominant driven lineout gave Charlie Atkinson the chance to dummy his way over between the posts and six minutes later the fly-half’s lovely short pass to an onrushing John Ryan set up the attacking platform from which Brad Shields crashed over.
Atkinson may have missed a sitter of a penalty in between but he and Dan Robson were pulling all the strings behind a purposeful visiting pack, with skipper Joe Launchbury and his new second-row partner Kiran McDonald both prominent. It was no real surprise, therefore, when Wasps scored again, their strong-running new South African centre Burger Odendaal slicing back against the grain to score with ominous ease.
It was easy enough to imagine the tone of the half-time team talks in both dressing rooms. Gloucester clearly needed to produce some kind of response and it was Louis Rees-Zammit, not for the first time, who lit the blue touchpaper, outpacing everyone after the ball had been turned over 90 metres back up the field.
Suddenly the mood was utterly different and another mass stampede out of the Gloucester half, with prop Harry Elrington leading the charge, ended with Charlie Chapman scoring a second Gloucester try inside three minutes. With the penalty count rising, Tom Willis and the replacement prop Biyi Alo were sent to the bin - a classic case of say Alo and wave goodbye - and Gloucester finally had the ascendancy they wanted.
A Freddie Clarke score and a subsequent penalty try duly did the rest, with Skivington predicting it will not be the last rollercoaster Premiership game this season. “It’s going to be a ferocious league,” said Skivington, whose side now have a bye this weekend. “I think it’ll be a real dogfight.”
