RugbyRebels

Gloucester: Evans; Rees-Zammit, Harris, Twelvetrees, Thorley; Hastings, Meehan; Rapava-Ruskin, Singleton, Balmain, Clarke, Alemanno, Reid, Ludlow (capt), Ackermann

Replacements: Socino, Ford-Robinson, Gotovtsev, Davidson, Clement, Chapman, Seabrook, Moyle

Harlequins: Green; Lynagh, Northmore, Esterhuizen, Marchant; Smith, Care; Marler, Walker, Collier, Symons, Tizard, Lawday, Kenningham, Dombrandt (capt)

Replacements: Musk, Garcia Botta, Kerrod, Lamb, Wallace, Gjaltema, Edwards, Jones

beat me to it and posted yours while I was writing mine up …

Should be a good game. Gloucester are getting back to being pretty good at Kingsholm. They have a good defence and a very good maul which is basically our Kryptonite. Not sure who the ref is, but if we get on the wrong side of him, I expect Gloucester to kick to the corner a lot.

Then again, I’d back our attack to score tries, particularly with Smith back, so it could be quite close.

You let Puja off of sorting the match threads and within days it's ANARCHY

Scrumhead wrote: beat me to it and posted yours while I was writing mine up …

Should be a good game. Gloucester are getting back to being pretty good at Kingsholm. They have a good defence and a very good maul which is basically our Kryptonite. Not sure who the ref is, but if we get on the wrong side of him, I expect Gloucester to kick to the corner a lot.

Then again, I’d back our attack to score tries, particularly with Smith back, so it could be quite close.

Potential for a very high scoring game today, but as you say I fear the combination of awful maul defence from Quinns and one of the best driving maul attacks from Gloucester will take the game away from Quinns. If Glos have an early pen and a chance to kick for the corner that could be terminal.

Or maybe I'm over playing it, never write this Quinns side off that's for sure!

Yes, that is my concern. However, we’re not to bad on the discipline front. I think I read somewhere that we’re currently the least penalised team in the league.

I think a lot of that is having a very solid front row (meaning a lot fewer scrum penalties), although VRR and Balmain will not give Marler and Collier and easy ride by any stretch of the imagination.

The plastic pitch could make it interesting. Their outside backs are rapid, but generally speaking, we’d have the more mobile, quicker team which might be an advantage on a hard, fast track.

Ah - Marler out after a late fitness test. Garcia Botta is a massive step down. Advantage Gloucester …

Really impressed every time I hear Skivington speak. Hopefully not just because he was praising Quins just then, but he seems to have a really great attitude. Not that I'm suggesting by this he should necessarily go further, but I'm enjoying seeing Gloucester get back on track so far.

Really looking forward to this game and aaaah bollocks I just read the post above. Marler is so crucial these days.

Dombrandt robbed there, that was a fantastic combination of skill and physicality.

Try of the season for Rapava-Ruskin?

Ah. Great tackle from Symons.

Great try by Gloucester, but have to agree with Kay if you've managed to get over the try-line with the ball (and then drop it) how can that not be advantage over for a penalty at the half-way line?

I'm aware I'm only talking to myself at this point but too late now.

You don't even need to knock the ball downwards anymore for it to be intentional?

Pleased to get an away win there. Not a great performance, things never really clicked for Smith and we made a number of very strange decisions.

Some Gloucester fans will definitely have questions about a few of the reffing decisions but I think that went both ways at various times.

Hardworking win for Quins. They controlled the game after the opening quarter and just did enough. Esterhuizen was tremendous and i really liked the allround game of Kenningham.

I thought Foley was OK. There were a few odd calls but both sides got them.

Danny Care is still a pest to play against and a crafty old sod of a scrum half. He is playing as well as anytime in his career and seems to be enjoying himself.

Agreed. I thought Foley was pretty poor, but in an even-handed way. Both teams could feel equally aggrieved at some of the decisions.

Ultimately, I’m pleased with a win on the road vs. an in-form Gloucester side. It wasn’t pretty, but I didn’t expect it to be.

Smith had one of his worst games. Just wasn’t at the races. We probably should have won that by at least 10pts given how much time we spent in Gloucester’s 22.

Ref was even enough, couple of dodgy calls for either side, pleased with the Glos defence for best part of 30 mins in that second half. Some poor decision making and poor ball for our half backs did for us ultimately. That and the turnover count. Thought this one would be close.

As a neutral I wondered about Dombrandt's 80 minute contribution. Is '20 minutes good and 60 anonymous' a reasonable assessment?

Not really sure what game you were watching then?

Perhaps there were no highlight reel moments, but he worked tirelessly for the 70mins he played with some excellent work at the breakdown.

I’ve been critical of him in these types of games before where he has been pretty anonymous (Sale away springs to mind), but this wasn’t one of those.

Not much between Dombrandt and Ackerman today, Ackerman might have actually shaded it. 9 and 12 was what made the difference.

Spiffy wrote:Danny Care is still a pest to play against and a crafty old sod of a scrum half. He is playing as well as anytime in his career and seems to be enjoying himself.

I’d say he’s more of the hot/cold caricature than he’s ever been. He’s had some truly dreadful games in the last season or so but was very effective today. Very handily as our back play outside of him was not fluid at all.

Several kicks where I was yelling at him for handing away possession actually turned out very well for us, and his passing was less scattergun than it has been recently.

I didn’t mean to suggest the ref was particularly bad, just that it was one of those games that felt defined by errors and missed opportunities.

Scrumhead wrote:Not really sure what game you were watching then?

Perhaps there were no highlight reel moments, but he worked tirelessly for the 70mins he played with some excellent work at the breakdown.

I’ve been critical of him in these types of games before where he has been pretty anonymous (Sale away springs to mind), but this wasn’t one of those.

He has been pretty darn good over the last few games. Shown good physicality both in attack and defence to go with his natural ball skills. On this form is giving the door one heck of a knock

Gloskarlos wrote:Ref was even enough, couple of dodgy calls for either side, pleased with the Glos defence for best part of 30 mins in that second half. Some poor decision making and poor ball for our half backs did for us ultimately. That and the turnover count. Thought this one would be close.

Turnovers really.....and Esterhuizen was immense. Glaws have great spirit and just need to concentrate more- Meehan was pretty awful I thought from that pov.

Just watched the game again as was watching in the pub yesterday which for some reason means I wasn't as attentive to the smaller points.

I know everyone is talking about Esterhuizen, and I know de Allende is there, but surely, SURELY, SA don't have another centre ahead of him? In other words, how can he possibly not be in their squad at least??

Magic_sponge wrote:Just watched the game again as was watching in the pub yesterday which for some reason means I wasn't as attentive to the smaller points.

I know everyone is talking about Esterhuizen, and I know de Allende is there, but surely, SURELY, SA don't have another centre ahead of him? In other words, how can he possibly not be in their squad at least??

They have a stupid amount of top class centres.