RugbyRebels

Gloucester Rugby:

Jason Woodward; 14. Tom Marshall, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Mark Atkinson, 11. Ollie Thorley; 10. Danny Cipriani, 9. Joe Simpson; 1. Val Rapava Ruskin, 2. Franco Marais, 3. Jamal Ford-Robinson; 4. Freddie Clarke, 5. Gerbrandt Grobler; 6. Ruan Ackermann, 7. Lewis Ludlow, 8. Ben Morgan (capt)


Replacements:

16. Corné Fourie, 17. Josh Hohneck, 18. Fraser Balmain, 19. Alex Craig, 20. Jake Polledri, 21. Callum Braley, 22. Billy Twelvetrees, 23. Matt Banahan

Unavailable for selection:

Ruan Dreyer, James Hanson, Willi Heinz, Ciaran Knight, Franco Mostert, Ed Slater, Henry Trinder, Owen Williams

Toulouse:-

Toulouse: 15. Thomas Ramos; 14. Yoann Huget, 13. Sofiane Guitoune; 12 Romain Ntamack; 11 Maxime Medard; 10. Zack Holmes, 9. Sebastien Bezy; 1. Cyril Baille, 2. Julien Marchand (c), 3. Charlie Faumuina; 4. Florian Verhaeghe, 5. Joe Tekori; 6. Francois Cros; 7. Rynhardt Elstadt, 8. Jerome Kaino.
Replacements: Peato Mauvaka, 17. Clement Castets, 18. Dorian Aldegheri, 19. Richie Gray, 20. Selevasio Tolofua, 21. Alban Placines, 22, Pierre Pages, 23. Lucas Tauzin.

For Glos the same team that was shite against Sarries barring Simpson back in at 9. No Kolbe for Toulouse but that backline does look pretty good....

I'm delighted to see Julien Marchand back. He's a future captain of the French XV in my opinion.
Good to see Richie Gray back too after not having played for the last few weeks.
Kolbe may be available for selection for next week's home fixture against Connacht.

I've always thought Owen Williams to be a classy player but with Cipriani as first choice, he'll have limited opportunities.

Can Glos be shite two weeks running? Toulouse looked good against Clermont last Saturday, but a Friday night with a warm welcome from the shed may just inspire Toulouse to a narrow win.

francoisfou wrote:I'm delighted to see Julien Marchand back. He's a future captain of the French XV in my opinion.
Good to see Richie Gray back too after not having played for the last few weeks.
Kolbe may be available for selection for next week's home fixture against Connacht.

I've always thought Owen Williams to be a classy player but with Cipriani as first choice, he'll have limited opportunities.

Can Glos be shite two weeks running? Toulouse looked good against Clermont last Saturday, but a Friday night with a warm welcome from the shed may just inspire Toulouse to a narrow win.

Glos have been poor 3 weeks running in all honesty. There’s something else going on with Owen Williams, lots of injuries are part of it, but he’s never ever in the frame, could probably count his appearances on one hand

Gloskarlos wrote:

francoisfou wrote:I've always thought Owen Williams to be a classy player but with Cipriani as first choice, he'll have limited opportunities.

Glos have been poor 3 weeks running in all honesty. There’s something else going on with Owen Williams, lots of injuries are part of it, but he’s never ever in the frame, could probably count his appearances on one hand

Speaking as a Leicester fan, I can say that the obvious explanation is that he isn't actually very good.

Puja

Puja wrote:

Gloskarlos wrote:

francoisfou wrote:I've always thought Owen Williams to be a classy player but with Cipriani as first choice, he'll have limited opportunities.

Glos have been poor 3 weeks running in all honesty. There’s something else going on with Owen Williams, lots of injuries are part of it, but he’s never ever in the frame, could probably count his appearances on one hand

Speaking as a Leicester fan, I can say that the obvious explanation is that he isn't actually very good.

Puja

There is that, and we are paying a lot for ‘not very good’. Think he’s been with us for what, 3 seasons now? So if he’s that bad in training to never get selected surely Glos would have jettisoned him by now... like I said there’s another story there somewhere too.

Good time for Glos to kickstart their season.
Can we invoke the "French sides dont travel very well" line to help the home teams cause?

I think that’s all we can do.

Gloskarlos wrote:

Puja wrote:

Gloskarlos wrote:
Glos have been poor 3 weeks running in all honesty. There’s something else going on with Owen Williams, lots of injuries are part of it, but he’s never ever in the frame, could probably count his appearances on one hand

Speaking as a Leicester fan, I can say that the obvious explanation is that he isn't actually very good.

Puja

There is that, and we are paying a lot for ‘not very good’. Think he’s been with us for what, 3 seasons now? So if he’s that bad in training to never get selected surely Glos would have jettisoned him by now... like I said there’s another story there somewhere too.

I have no idea where his reputation for being a good player comes from. He never showed it for Leicester, hasn't ever showed it for Glaws - at some point you've just got to acknowledge that he's very well marketed and you've been had. I suspect Glaws are just waiting out his contract as it'd cost more to release him.

Puja

Given how often he played at Leicester (and I thought he looked a good player, if a bit flakey) I had actually assumed he’d left Glos already and gone to the championship or France.

Mikey Brown wrote:Given how often he played at Leicester (and I thought he looked a good player, if a bit flakey) I had actually assumed he’d left Glos already and gone to the championship or France.

I'm perhaps being a touch harsh - he is a serviceable Prem backup fly-half and is probably being kept by Glaws in case of injury crisis. However, he's not good enough to be a starter and I've got absolutely no clue how he managed to get 3 Wales caps.

Puja

Owen Williams was a good player IMO.
Came to Tigers as a 21 year old, which is young and he had some extremely good games for Tigers, Clermont QF stands out the most.

Honestly reminded me of Farrell at that age extremely solid, and wouldn’t go missing in defence.

Hard to judge at Tigers if the slump in Backs was down to him at 10 or us never having regular fit midfield for him to play with or us just not really having a backs coach for a large chunk of it.

Tigersman wrote:Honestly reminded me of Farrell at that age extremely solid, and wouldn’t go missing in defence.

Interesting comparison. Don’t really disagree without but somehow one is struggling for a club game and the other is the best player in the universe.

Mikey Brown wrote:

Tigersman wrote:Honestly reminded me of Farrell at that age extremely solid, and wouldn’t go missing in defence.

Interesting comparison. Don’t really disagree without but somehow one is struggling for a club game and the other is the best player in the universe.

but one has to compete against Cipriani, whilst the other has been protected from having to do so.

Thorley failed a late fitness test sadly, Louis Rees Zammit his replacement. Super gas on this guy.

Are you at Kingsholm, GK?

With a lot of possession for Toulouse, Glos have taken their chances and deserve their lead

Certainly getting a good look at VRR today.

Jesus christ I hate Austin Healey.

Simpson, Cipriani, Atkinson. It's a pleasure to watch a 9,10,12 combo for a change.

If only they were English.

Wow. Who threw that lineout at the floor?

Delighted with that! A precious away win!

One that got away there for Glos. Why did they wait so long to use their bench? No tight 5 subs until about the 65th minute, then Polledri was given 9 minutes. Toulouse had rolling subs from half time for about 20 minutes which gave them loads of impetus, Glos coaches didn’t react.

Lineout been shocking for weeks and no better tonight, you can’t lose 50% of your throws and expect to win any rugby match. Just wank.