Rotherham, the Premiership's newest club, have now lost three matches in
succession but staged a late and impressive recovery at Clifton Lane to
threaten Gloucester's dominance.
Gloucester, who have been suffering from an injury crisis, won their first
match this season thanks to a splendid hat-trick of tries by French winger
Franck Schisano, who scored on 14, 21 and 46 minutes.
Gloucester's dominance, typified by an outstanding display by flanker Jake
Boer, was such that they led 6-24 at the interval having scored three tries to
none.
Rotherham sadly looked out of their depth before half-time and could only
manage two penalties from full-back Mike Umaga.
Their chances though would have been improved if Umaga had not missed a
straightforward penalty on 36 minutes.
After the break, Schisano completed his hat-trick to give Gloucester a
commanding lead of 6-29, but suddenly and rather surprisingly, Rotherham put
together a commendable recovery.
Scrum-half Dave Scully touched down on 55 minutes and with Umaga converting,
Rotherham gained some respectability.
Their recovery gathered pace when Umaga put over a penalty on 65 minutes and
grew in conviction on 76 minutes as replacement prop Jim Thorp crashed over for
Rotherham's second try, making it 21-29.
Umaga's conversion narrowed the gap to just six points and with the Gloucester
line under constant pressure, a shock Rotherham victory could not have been
ruled out.
However, Gloucester's defence withstood the pressure and Gloucester's victory
by four tries to two was fully deserved after an entertaining contest.
Teams:
Rotherham:
Tries: Scully, Thorp.
Cons: Umaga 2.
Pens: Umaga 3.
Rotherham: Umaga, Simpson,
Naylor, Northey, Wood, Binns,
Scully, Bunting, Johnson, Latham, Parr, Kenworthy, Schmid,Earnshaw, Fea'unati.
Not Used: Thorp, Olver, Dudley, Harrison, Spence, Garnett,Greaves.
Gloucester:
Tries: Jewell, Schisano 3.
Cons: Hayward 3.
Pens: Hayward.
Gloucester: Fanolua, Jewell, Ewens, Yates, Schisano, Hayward,
Gomarsall, Simon, Azam, Powles, Fidler, I. Jones, Boer,K. Jones, Paramore.
Not Used: Simpson-Daniel, Sanders, Sanchez, Kwisiuik, Ojomoh,Eustace, Pearce.
Att: 2,500
Ref: J Warren (RFU).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook