Gloucester up next

[Doghashadhisday]

Cold wet night, I am feeling it.
I thought the breakdown was a joke all round, diving in and side entries galore, got quite tasty at various points and not a bit of it legal.
Catchpole did not impress me, made an outside break, it was on but didn't have the pace.
Very fortunate first half IMO Gloucester completely hashed a try.
Roberts does indeed look very quick.
Harrison's kicking was pretty good and made a break nearly resulted in a score late on.
Scrums looked difficult, the pitch looked very slippery and Glouceter were better then I expected.

Agree with you on most of the points, though we should allow Catchpole some leeway. I have now watched him in 3 consecutive live games and I feel given time he could be good. Some people have wanted Catchpole, Roberts, Pearce and Thacker thrown in after their performances in LV but the premiership is a different story and they need to be gradually introduced. To be fair he did not let us down on a horrible night.

[Hot_Charlie]

Not sure about some of JP s calls. A lot of squint put ins and line outs, off sides missed and knock ons ignored.

Sam Harrison fed the second row all night and Gloucester's line-out wasn't anywhere straight all night! I think they were saved by our lack of competing jumpers for several of them.

Catchpole did alright. Had a regular, experienced 13 been available for selection maybe Roberts would have started. As it was it worked nicely, and he was very unlucky to be called offside in the first half.

[TigerLad]

Not sure about some of JP s calls. A lot of squint put ins and line outs, off sides missed and knock ons ignored.

Sam Harrison fed the second row all night and Gloucester's line-out wasn't anywhere straight all night! I think they were saved by our lack of competing jumpers for several of them.

Catchpole did alright. Had a regular, experienced 13 been available for selection maybe Roberts would have started. As it was it worked nicely, and he was very unlucky to be called offside in the first half.

Yep. It genuinely baffles me that people are so eager to have a pop at a 21 year old academy graduate making his premiership debut. He wasn't spectacular but then who was? Tonight was a night for the backs to chase kicks and make their tackles, he did that and that's all you can ask for in a game like today. He didn't look out of depth at all to me which is a positive sign for his development.

[Rykard]

Not sure about some of JP s calls. A lot of squint put ins and line outs, off sides missed and knock ons ignored.

Sam Harrison fed the second row all night and Gloucester's line-out wasn't anywhere straight all night! I think they were saved by our lack of competing jumpers for several of them.

Catchpole did alright. Had a regular, experienced 13 been available for selection maybe Roberts would have started. As it was it worked nicely, and he was very unlucky to be called offside in the first half.

Yep. It genuinely baffles me that people are so eager to have a pop at a 21 year old academy graduate making his premiership debut. He wasn't spectacular but then who was? Tonight was a night for the backs to chase kicks and make their tackles, he did that and that's all you can ask for in a game like today. He didn't look out of depth at all to me which is a positive sign for his development.

+1 sticky pitch, wind and rain - what you want is players not making mistakes, pretty much that is what they all did. glad to see both him and roberts getting a run out. I too thought the offside was unlucky, another day not called.

[Rykard]

.. and a word about Crane, thought he had an excellent game in tricky conditions. Cheek opened up from the first half managed to stay in it, bet Pearce was gagging for a run lol.

[sam16111986]

I think it's a bit harsh to judge Catchpole on a physical forwards game in the rain. He made his tackles, he worked hard and he made yards ball in hand. It was a solid display. The fireworks came from Roberts off the bench as the opposition tired.

[tigerburnie]

Filthy night where slick passing was not on the cards for either side, both sides played admirably. I just wish instead of taking the ball when static we took the ball at pace, surely you will get more chance of getting over the gain line more often?
Line out was ok, scrums started poorly but got better.

Typical forward, probably counting the strikes against the head, not the penalties.
It's a win, against a side that are coming good. Take it and smile.

Aye you're right JG, shouting not straight at every line out and put in the scrum all night...........

[DickyP]

I thought Kvesic completely outplayed Salvi.

The rest of the Glos back row were pretty good also.

Just shows how good Kvesic is - Salvi didn't play badly, at all - Kvesic was just excellent!

[DickyP]

I though Catchpole had an excellent game - certainly the best outside break we've seen on a 13 since Ollie Smith. Was certainly the pick of the centres on show from both teams until Roberts came on. I, for one, am now confident we have a pair of centres who we can chuck in at the deep end, if necessary.

Apart from the crooked feeds to line-outs and scrums which were annoying but not really game changing, the worst official shortcoming last evening was the complete failure to police offside at kicks ahead by Glos - we did once and got pinged - Sharples was never onside at a kick chase and got away with it all evening!

[Brianf]

Agree with all the positives about Catchpole. It was not the best of conditions for running rugby last night, but he did most things right. Tackled, ran well, looked for the ball and got in good positions. For a Premiership debut I was impressed.

For the few minutes Roberts was on, he looked very promising indeed. Some people have talked about his size, but this may actually be an advantage, as I think he has genuine potential and ability to breach defences. A

final word goes to the oft maligned Jordan Crane. He is a bit like Marmite...you either love him or hate him! I think the scrum works better with him, especially in games like last night. I believe he had a very good game last night and word extremely hard.

[Phil B]

Pity that new Board Member Ben Kay got Roberts' and Thackers' Christian names mixed up in the post match interview. Pleased that he is so close to the Club.

[DickyP]

Pity that new Board Member Ben Kay got Roberts' and Thackers' Christian names mixed up in the post match interview. Pleased that he is so close to the Club.

Seems to be a common problem - he's not the first writer/commentator to mix the two.Don't tell me you've never done it with names.

However, as you point out BK has two reasons he should get it right - board member and professional pundit!

[RagingBull]

We have had this season at least:
Jeremy Bell
Daryl gibson our current flanker
Etc etc

Tbh he corrected himself right at the end.

[beech]

Unless referees get to grips with the offsides connected with blitz defences the game is going to be more and more tedious. It appears that each referee can decide which laws to monitor - line-out and scrum feeds and now off-sides are included to the list. I found this the most depressing aspect of last nights game.

[mol2]

Not policing the offside did rather kill the game from the fans point of view.

I was puzzled as to why we didn't contest a number of the line outs - they were clearly vulnerable but we didn't compete as much as we should. I can understand the tactic of not engaging with lineout drive but not jumping?