Zurich Premiership leaders Gloucester survived a few anxious moments to reach
the quarter-finals of the Powergen Cup at the expense of plucky Exeter.
Former Gloucester captain Dave Sims was in superb form and led the Exeter pack
so well that the visitors caused real alarm amongst the Kingsholm rearguard.
Had their backs been as determined, a real shock could have been on the cards
but the home side eventually ran in five tries to win comfortably. Jake Boer led
the way, grabbing a try himself and having a hand in three others.
Gloucester had rung the changes in their backline but fielded a near
full-strength pack that surprisingly did not dominate as much as expected.
Where they did well was in the toughness of their defence, especially in
midfield, so that for all Exeter's promise they made few attacking inroads.
But worryingly for the home side, Exeter's ability to retain possession and
force Gloucester to cough it up exposed some shortcomings.
Yet due to the efforts of man-of-the-match Boer, who produced a fine all-round
display, the final outcome was never really in doubt.
Another bright spot for Gloucester was the performance full-back Chris
Catling. Struggling to get into the side these days, the former Exeter player
showed his finishing class with two tries and twice denied Exeter scores with
superb tackles.
Gloucester led by 21 points at half-time but struggled to get back into their
stride after the break.
During that initial period in the second half they had to keep a determined
Exeter at bay as the visitors came within inches of a pushover score.
Exeter had to content themselves however with two penalties from Tony Yapp as
reward for their efforts.
Gloucester also had a reliable kicker in Henry Paul who converted all of their
tries.
The first of these went to Catling who finished off some good handling to go
over. A penalty kick to the corner gave Boer the chance from a lineout drive and
it needed more good work from back-row forward Peter Buxton to drive over.
Gloucester's grinding forward power gradually took charge again in the final
stages with Daren O'Leary and Catling getting further tries.
Teams:
Gloucester: Catling, O'Leary, Fanolua, Paul, Beim, Amor,
Stuart-Smith, Roncero, Collins, Deacon, Fidler, Cornwell, Boer,
Buxton, Forrester.
Replacements: Frape, Garvey, Delport, Caves, Molloy, Paramore,
Pearce.
Tries: Catling 2, Boer, Buxton, O'Leary.
Cons: Paul 5.
Exeter: Thompson, Lewsey, Murdoch, Ward, Trethewey, Yapp, John,
Ozdemir, Brooking, Sluman, Sims, Brown, Willis, Hansen,
R. Baxter.
Replacements: Blythe, Hobson, Harris, Cole, Etheredge, Sanders,
Bunny.
Pens: Yapp 2
Att: 4,912
Ref: Martin Fox (RFU).
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