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Gloucester 'A' 3 - Saracens 'A' 14
25 September 2006 |
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After 2 away defeats, an inexperienced ‘A’ side attempted to kick-start their season in their first home game. Saracens brought a team including Andy Farrell, Tevita Vaikona and Moses Rauluni (as well as Neil de Kock on the bench) and plenty of grunt in the front five. Although Glaws opened the scoring with a Mark Davies penalty, Sarries were soon in front when a kick threaded through the advancing defence by Alex Goode was hacked on and latched onto by Tom Loizides to score under the posts. There were no further scores in a first half that was littered with poor (and slow) passing and knock-ons.
Nine minutes after the break, an excellent dart up the left by Goode put Tomas de Vedia away for a well executed try. Glaws did have more possession in this second period but their progress was hampered by a poorly functioning lineout (the talk on the terrace was that Ollie had been helping out with the training this week!) and some pretty average passing. Jack Adams was one of the shining lights but he was withdrawn after 58 minutes – almost certainly on orders from up in the Grandstand.
The biggest cheer of the night was after 69 minutes when, for a moment, it looked like Farrell had been sent to the bin for not rolling away. The haircut was correct (No. 1) but the number was an 8 not a 6 and it was the captain, Paul Gustard, that trudged off for a breather. All in all, the saviour of English rugby had a very anonymous night, and his team’s victory owed much to his colleagues in the front five that out muscled their younger opposition.
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