Sunday, January 22, 2012
Gloucester and Toulouse play out a classic at Kingsholm
Gloucester upset four-times champions Toulouse in a classic Heineken Cup meeting at Kingsholm on Friday night. Despite the 34-24 loss, Toulouse have qualified for the quarter finals. Below are highlights of a game that featured some wonderful tries.
Things didn't start according to plan for Gloucester as they lost prop Nick Wood to the sin-bin with just one minute on the clock. His wreckless use of the boot on a player put the home side at an immediate disadvantage, but it came to nothing as they scored first after a frantic bit of play by dynamic winger Timoci Matanavou. Jonny May swooped to score his first of two tries on the night.
May and Charlie Sharples featured strongly for the home side as the speedsters not only scored some great tries, but both contributed towards an excellent overall team effort. Freddie Burns was also prominent as he scored 14 points with the boot.
"That was a great performance," said Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath. "We knew they had picked a big, physical side and we showed them a lot of respect. I thought numbers one to 23 - our substitutes that came on made a big difference as well - were great. I am delighted for the boys because we finished off the Heineken Cup in style.
"Freddie has been improving over the past six or seven weeks, and he has been learning to do things other than the fancy stuff. In general terms, he controlled the game pretty well. Jonny is in the top two try-scorers in the Premiership, and he has probably scored a few in the Heineken and LV= Cup. With Charlie as well, our back three were dangerous tonight," he added.
While Gloucester exit the competition after finishing third in Pool Six, Toulouse have qualified as pool winners after Harlequins’ surprise defeat at the hands of Connacht.
Below are extended highlights from a fantastic game of rugby. Enjoy.
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Viewing 23 comments
Guy January 22, 2012 12:27 pm
Reality January 22, 2012 2:27 pm
This looks like a really great match. Toulouse seemed to be all over them in the scrums; I wonder why they didn't try to get a few penalties out of it instead of immediately picking the ball. That back three for Gloucester though seem to be wonderful. I enjoyed Connacht versus Harlequins but I think this might have been slightly more exciting.
The Green Mafia January 22, 2012 2:35 pm
This seems to have been a cracking game, this heineken cup just seems to get more and more exciting. Cant wait for the quarterfinals
AachenSaints January 22, 2012 4:38 pm
Colombes January 22, 2012 5:23 pm
This HC pool 6 has offered some of the best matchs of the last months with toulouse, harlequins, gloucester and the connacht brave minnows
both teams never stopped to play during 80 minutes. Toulouse should have played more strategically, and they would have won it easily. but as matanavou, they took too much risks in defence, and followed the "fire" rythm of gloucester in attack
all credits to connacht and gloucester for respecting rugby despite their eliminations
Canadian content January 22, 2012 6:31 pm
i must say, i really enjoy the exuberant, unbiased french commentary. they are as excited about the great rugby played by the english as they are by the french. in general, they are excited by good rugby. the ozzies and kiwis could learn something from these guys.
also, impressed with dusatoir's pace, he exploded to the line.
moddeur January 22, 2012 7:21 pm
stroudos January 22, 2012 8:15 pm
Reality January 22, 2012 11:36 pm
sithepie January 22, 2012 7:57 pm
DaRab January 22, 2012 9:35 pm
stroudos January 22, 2012 9:36 pm
Always get a pang of regret watching james Simpson-Daniel - if only he hadn't got so many injuries at crucial times during his peak, (also I think there were times when he was fit but coaches didn't seem to fancy him), he could have been sensational for England. Probably still could be but now you've got people like Charlie Sharples who must come in as longer term options.
Matthew January 27, 2012 6:09 pm
Bunn January 23, 2012 2:04 am
cheyanqui January 23, 2012 3:39 am
Narraway 1st dummy pass (off the scrum centre) -- brilliance. I wonder if he should have tried to chip kick for the corner.
Narraway's 2nd dummy pass looked like right out of the Noa Nadruku / Carlos Spencer playbooks.
And in terms of the quality of the telecasts -- I can learn more about how a rugby game went watching a French feed with the sound muted, than I do watching those cheesy British feeds.
And if I unmute a British telecast and hear Stuart Barnes, I learn even less.
(Austin Healy's a bit of a twat, but at least he livens up the discussion.)
Lastly, did anyone hear the French commentators say "SOW-SOW-KNEE-BOO-SAH"?
Jagr bombs January 23, 2012 7:41 pm
jolindien January 25, 2012 1:26 am
stroudos January 28, 2012 7:47 am
Can a French-speaker clarify why he was being mentioned? (It's around 6:25). Obviously wasn't on the pitch and I thought he was still out with an injured knee. It sounded like they were mentioning the score of an Agen game, "32-26 with a fantastic Caucaunibuca". Have Toulouse lent him back to Agen while he comes back from injury or something then? Was the implication that if Caucau had played it would've been harder for Sharples to score in that part of the pitch?
Joel January 27, 2012 1:00 am
jeppy89 January 29, 2012 3:43 am
charlie sharples and ben morgan came from that same dursley side but as a gloucester boy i just cant pick who should play 8 for england. both ben and narraway would both be huge assests as far as i can see.
any thoughts?
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