Kingsholm Virtual Inn- come on in.

First topic message reminder :

Gloucester fans need somewhere to chat over a (an imagined) pint of Rucking Mole or Doombar.
Come on in fellas and ladies, take a seat.
Away fans welcome too.
What's happening then at GRFC & Kingsholm ?
Gossip, scuttlebutt, salacious rumour, even rubgy news - share it here.
Lord Leveson has not discovered 606, so you may speak easy here.
Seasonal mince pies & cognac available in nearby Gtown.
Merry Christmas to all our visitors.

Glos news for Ospreys game:
"In the backs, the likes of Martyn Thomas, Shane Monahan, Tim Molenaar, Tim Taylor and Dan Robson are no strangers to first team action, while there is a welcome debut for centre Drew Locke.
Similarly, in the pack, the experience of Tommaso d’Apice, Dario Chistolini, Matt Cox and skipper Peter Buxton is backed up by a number of promising young forwards, including current England U20 squad members Elliott Stooke and Ross Moriarty.
Meanwhile, the relationships that Gloucester have built in recent times with players dual registered with the likes of Cinderford and Hartpury, pays dividends.
Second row Ed King and back row Ben Sparks, both from Cinderford, have both been registered to take their place amongst the replacements.
Discussing the game with the local media this week, Forwards Coach Carl Hogg stressed that Friday’s game is a real opportunity for those selected"

Gloucester Rugby:
Martyn Thomas; Shane Monahan, Drew Locke, Tim Molenaar, Ian Clark; Tim Taylor, Dan Robson; Yann Thomas, Tommaso d’Apice, Dario Chistolini; Elliott Stooke, Will Graulich; Ross Moriarty, Matt Cox, Peter Buxton (capt)
Replacements:
Koree Britton, Dan Murphy, Tom Heard, Ed King, Ben Sparks, Dave Lewis, Billy Burns, Steph Reynolds

Less experienced that expected, but good to see some of the youngsters given a shot. I firmly believe Stooke and Moriarty are going to be decent players, with the former making the step up sooner rather than later. We have a pretty strong backline and it's good to see Locke make his debut. If we can get a result we in with a real chance of qualifying.

There can't be many games where there were 2 sets of father and sons!

HKC,
who are the father / son combos ? You seem to know a lot of Glos history & players.

And Btw Qera has indeed been confirmed in the starting 15 for Fiji on Saturday.

Paul & Ross Moriarty and Nigel and Sam Davies (on the bench for the Ospreys)

DESPERATELY SEEKING ---
SUPPORTERS !
(only a fiver)
"For those who have bought match day tickets they can upgrade to our supporters lounge for £5. 2003 Supporters Lounge Access Full bar facility
HOT & COLD food available
Ample seating for dining and poser tables in bar area
Flat Screen TV's playing 'Concourse TV' and Ospreys memorabilia
Match day Programmes available for sale. Ospreys Player Q&A pre-match for every match. Official (OSC) Ospreys Supporters Club Hosted Room, Raffles and Entertainment
Opportunity to purchase guest passes at £5 (Price excludes Match Ticket and is subject to availability)

How the LV has changed. We'll never be at a final again in front of 50,000+ fans like we did against Cardiff (although I'd rather never go to a game like that again!).

I'd far rather this cup be against Championship sides. You'd guarantee there'd be no need for £5 offers if we were playing Bristol tomorrow night.

Have you seen our side v Fiji for tomorrow?

Martyn Thomas; Steph Reynolds, Drew Locke, Tim Molenaar, Ian Clark; Dan Robson, Dave Lewis; Yann Thomas, Koree Britton, Dario Chistolini; Will Graulich, Harry Casson; Ross Moriarty, Matt Cox, Peter Buxton (capt)

Replacements:

Tommaso d'Apice, Dan Murphy, Tom Heard, Ed King, Ben Sparks, Bred Field, George Boulton, tbc

I think it's terrible that tickets are full price when we've selected a side with less experience than the one against Ospreys.

hmnmm, and I'm taking the wife for her first game.
Not sure she would notice it was a B side anyway.
But yes, paying for 2 full price tickets,

gregortree wrote:hmnmm, and I'm taking the wife for her first game.
Not sure she would notice it was a B side anyway.
But yes, paying for 2 full price tickets,

I'm sure you and the wife will still have a great evening, I personally feel a bit shortchanged and the overpricing means it won't be a full house .

Also, bear in mind it's a fiver to watch that lot in the A league.

Would have been interesting to give Q a run out!! Surely now's the time to test new combinations with the kids playing alongside experience I.e: will james in the 2nd row, tindall at centre with youngsters around them?

... and another thing.. Robson & Lewis are both scrum halves. Is one of them acting FH for the evening ? I take it Qera will not be there in either side ? That would be too much. Half the faithful would be cheering for Fiji !

gregortree wrote:... and another thing.. Robson & Lewis are both scrum halves. Is one of them acting FH for the evening ? I take it Qera will not be there in either side ? That would be too much. Half the faithful would be cheering for Fiji !

Yeah, well Taylor is injured and Billy Burns got injured in the last game. So looks like we're sticking with kids!

Robson is a handy young talent, so maybe he will play 10.

Robson played at 10 when he was dual reg'd with Hartpury, so he does have experience there. It gives us that rather Gallic option which I've always liked.

I won't be attending tonight's game as unfortunately I've had my hands burnt by Glaws before on this type of occasion, so always wait to see what the team is before purchasing - the final straw for me was after the Glaws legends game against the Combined Services. We were promised the likes of Fanolua, Roncero, Mercier, etc and we got Simon Amor! As it happened it was a great game, but not what I was expecting or paid full price for.

I fully support Davies with the team he has put out, my issue is with the higher echelons of the club who saw fit to market this as a competitive game at full price. Whilst my ST would give me a £5 discount, it would still mean paying £30+ for a ticket to sit, which I don't feel is value for money to watch a side less experienced than most A sides we put out, which would normally cost £5.

But I do hope its a great game and you enjoy yourself

Thinking about it now, we're missing:

Kalamafoni, Sinbad, O Morgan, Trinder, Hazell, Brown, Dawidiuk, Knight, May, Mills, Taylor, B Burns through injury/ban

And Hamilton, Sharples, Burns, B Morgan, Twelvetrees have been, or are, involved with international squads. So in some ways there aren't many players left to field!

But we could still put out:
Wood, Edmonds, Harden, Savage, James, Buxton, Moriarty, Cox, Lewis, Robson, Monahan, Tindall, Molenaar, Clark, Cook

I feel ND is doing exactly the right thing, but as he has stated he intends to put out closer to a first team for the LV game against Welsh in preperation for Sale, it is clear that they had always planned to put out a 2nd string side for this game. This in itself is absolutely fine, just done charge me £30+ to watch it!

Yes, both sides had 2nd / 3rd string.
It was scrappy, errors, penalties, dramas excitement, and there was a Haka.But not much rugby as we would like to see it.
Fiji might feel a bit unlucky, although their scrummage inability cost them several yellows and the game.
My wife enjoyed her first visit to Kingsholm with my mates, and she drove the car home bless her !

Hope the Kingsholm gate is bigger than the measly 3,000 Oxford Welsh managed at theirs. Roll Up fans, buy your tickets.
Glos only an hour by train from S Wales and 2 hours London.

Tickets available for London Welsh clash
Tickets are available for Gloucester Rugby's first home fixture in the group stages of this season's LV=Cup, against London Welsh on Saturday 17th November kick off 4.30 PM.

Glaws:
Rob Cook; Shane Monahan, Mike Tindall (capt), Billy Twelvetrees, Steph Reynolds; Freddie Burns, Jimmy Cowan; Nick Wood, Huia Edmonds, Rupert Harden; Tom Savage, Will James; Akapusi Qera, Matt Cox, Ben Morgan

Replacements:

Koree Britton, Dan Murphy, Dario Chistolini, Peter Buxton, Ross Moriarty, Dave Lewis, Tim Molenaar, Drew Locke

Welsh
15. Tom Voyce*, 14. Dan Caprice, 13. Sonny Parker*, 12. Seb Jewell, 11. Nick Scott, 10. Gordon Ross*, 9. Jamie Stephenson, 1. Tom Bristow, 2. Will Hafu, 3. Paulica Ion*, 4. Adam Brown, 5. Matt Corker, 6. Lee Beach, 7. Michael Hills, 8. Adam Balding.

Replacements: 16. James Tideswell, 17. Greg Bateman, 18. Arthur Joly, 19. Paul Spivey, 20. Ed Jackson, 21. Nick Runciman, 22. Alex Davies, 23. James Lewis.

ND kept to his word and has put out a stronger team this week in light of next week's game against Sale. From this clearly May, Sinbad, K and Knight aren't over their injury yet, but hopefully some will be back in contention next week.

Great to see Voyce, Balding and Runciman back at Kingsholm and no doubt we'll give them the usual warm welcome.

It's an interesting decision to start with Steph Reynolds ahead of Clark, but this is the competition to blood youngsters, so good luck to him. Many Glaws supporters will be pleased to see Q play at 6, as many feel this is his natural position. I still feel he is more of a 7 than a 6, but Cox needs a run at 7 and the 2 should complement each other well.

I shall be at the ground nice and early to watch the warm up match on the big screens, then on to the main show

Redpath will get a warm welcome too on the 24th

Great performance against Welsh. Was basically the 1st XV and the rugby was fantastic, lovely reverse pass from Cowan early on!

Please do that against Sale!

Missed it as I was in Brighton watchin the England victory no sorry, defeat with my son. I'll be at K for the Sale game.

gregortree wrote:Missed it as I was in Brighton watchin the England victory no sorry, defeat with my son. I'll be at K for the Sale game.

It was a satisfying win, although we did go off the boil slightly in the 2nd half once the game had clearly been won. You did miss some wonderfully amusing moments: the ref brandished a red card by mistake to their lock; Tindall slipping for their last try and subsequently kicking the restart straight out which was met by a loud cheer of eey-ores; and finally Dave Lewis tried to kick the ball out at the end of the game, but he missed touch and Monahan had to catch it.

Joking aside, bar his mad minute Tindall was outstanding and it is amazing to see the difference in him. Even if Trinder were fit I doubt he'd get into the team ahead of him at the moment.

Tindall has seen a mental renaissance or something with his new season contract. I have wondered if his 'coaching' and team elder responsibilties have given him some fresh motivation this season. Stupid bu#@er fluffing his kick to hand LW the try.
Shame I missed those comical moments, Kingsholm can be so much fun when the crowd are in that party mood (only when we well ahead normally)
Was Henson playing ?

Don't think Henson played Gregor-think it was Ross.

I'm trying to work out whether I want to watch Glos or Lydney this Sat....I'm playing the friday night so head back to f.o.d from there! Also, need to work out where would be the safest and friendliest place to watch Wales vs N.Z through my hands!!

PropLyd
thanks
I may be in for a long Saturday myself, in and around Kingsholm,. after the train from Stroud. First, welcome Redpath back to the old club- could be some fun. Then Eng v RSA in one of the bars, less fun. Might be a long afternoon
Biltong can then give us a kicking too on 606 - owch

Nice early kickoff to not clash with the big boys at HQ.
Hersh
So come and get your tickets here for a complete afternoon of both live & TV rugby.

http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?agency=GRFC_GENERAL&organ_val=34149&utm_source=mdm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Gloucester+Rugby+vs+Sale+Sharks+Saturday+24th+November+kick+off+12pm+Live+at+Kingsholm++Buy+your+tickets+now

Can't wait for this encounter. Surely Jonny May's recovery is just around the corner?

I'm just hoping that England's uninspired performance doesn't rob us of Morgan, Burns and 36!

Apparently May is nearly ready. I can't imagine he'll go straight into the starting line-up, unless Sinbad's quad injury keeps him out.

HongKongCherry wrote:I'm just hoping that England's uninspired performance doesn't rob us of Morgan, Burns and 36!

No danger of that happening!

Glad we can keep them a bit longer at the club.
+ Jonny May now he is fit again.
Their England call will come one day.

Desperate for Jonny to sign a new contract, I'm sure ND will work his magic.

EnglishReign wrote:Desperate for Jonny to sign a new contract, I'm sure ND will work his magic.

I'm sure he will. They seem to be a close knit bunch and he is making good in roads with Glaws, so I'd be confident he stays, although I said that about Mr Attwood...

Attwood was a roaming mercenary who changed his club as often as his boots.
Jonny is the innocent local lad, more susceptible to NDs Hywl.

gregortree wrote:Attwood was a roaming mercenary who changed his club as often as his boots.
Jonny is the innocent local lad, more susceptible to NDs Hywl.

Or as he is commonly known Dave "I will never play for ####### Bath" Attwood! I do feel he is only just starting to recapture the form of his first season with us. If he can build on that he will become a really decent player - still a turncoat though

Having said that if we'd kept him would we have ended up with Tom Savage? As I know which one I'd prefer! Savage for me is the perfect example to prove wrong all those people who start you have to be gym monkeys to make an impact. He's no small lad, but he's not bulky either, yet his intensity is right up there. His contract is up for renewal and I really hope we tie him down for a long time as I can see him being Big Jim's successor on the captaincy front.

hope we can keep them both HKC of course.
Right now, Glos is a good show case club for aspiring players as we are doing well in the AP without getting distracted by too many international call ups. Good place for these young players to be developing their careers.

Sinbad out for four months! .

Starting to see why he's so unlucky with England, great timing.

Gutted! Also, very surprised as the injury he picked up at Quins was to his quad and he was due out for 2 weeks, so where's this shoulder injury come from? I presume it must be a long standing injury, so what has happened that it needs to be dealt with now?

He'll be a big loss as he has single handedly saved us on a number of occasions this term. It sounds like May is not fully fit either, so its rather fortunate that SL realised this week that Sharples plays for Glaws and promptly dropped him.

On the positive front it has been confirmed that K is back to fitness, so I'd expect the team against Sale to be:
1. Wood
2. Edmonds
3. Harden
4. Savage
5. James
6. Q
7. Cox
8. K
9. Cowan
10. Burns
11. Monahan
12. 36
13. Tindall
14. Sharples
15. Cook

EnglishReign wrote:Sinbad out for four months! .

Starting to see why he's so unlucky with England, great timing.

Are we sure his injured and not just very nervous at the thought of playing for England again, this happens at the same time every year!

English Cherry: can you tell us what is Sinbad's injury ?
Sadly he does seem about as robust as a Ming vase at times.

Hersh,
You are always welcome here at the Kingsholm Inn, but no need for a Baarrff gloat... bad manners to your hosts there mate.

HERSH wrote:

EnglishReign wrote:Sinbad out for four months! .

Starting to see why he's so unlucky with England, great timing.

Are we sure his injured and not just very nervous at the thought of playing for England again, this happens at the same time every year!

Or the more likely conspiracy is that this injury allows him to attend every day of the Cheltenham Festival

Gregor, this gives the full story http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Surgery-sidelines-Sinbad/story-17379495-detail/story.html#comments > sounds like he had his shoulder checked whilst injured with his leg to find out he had a serious problem with his shoulder that needed dealing with.

So the rumours about Alex Brown are true. He's out for the season with nerve damage to the shoulder. The outlook is gloomy as there seems to be much speculation that this is career ending. A rather cruel twisit of fate if this does occur considering he still holds the record for the most consecutive starts. Also terribly sad that in his testimonial year he only plays one game.

We will get some extra cash under the salary cap rules to find a short term replacement, its just a question of who. Maybe we could persuade one of the visiting locks touring at the moment to stay on!

Very strong Glaws line up, the various international coaches have done us a favour.

GLAWS
Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Mike Tindall, Billy Twelvetrees, Shane Monahan; Freddie Burns, Jimmy Cowan; Dan Murphy, Huia Edmonds, Rupert Harden; Will James, Jim Hamilton (capt); Tom Savage, Akapusi Qera, Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements:

Koree Britton, Nick Wood, Shaun Knight, Peter Buxton, Matt Cox, Dan Robson, Tim Molenaar, Martyn Thomas

SALE:
15.Rob Miller, 14.Charlie Amesbury, 13.Will Addison, 12.Sam Tuitupou, 11.Mark Cueto, 10.Danny Cipriani, 9.Dwayne Peel, 1.Ross Harrison, 2.Tommy Taylor, 3.Tony Buckley, 4.Fraser McKenzie, 5.Kearnan Myall, 6.Richie Vernon, 7.David Seymour (capt.), 8.Andy Powell.


Replacements: 16.Joe Ward, 17.Eifion Lewis-Roberts, 18.Vadim Cobilas, 19.Tom Holmes, 20.James Gaskell, 21.Will Cliff, 22.Nick Macleod, 23.Cameron Shepherd

We should thump them, show Redpath what he is missing.

If we continue with the same doggedness as we've been showing I am rather confident we could see a few Glaws scores. I know the likes of Tommy Taylor have been receiving good reviews based upon how inexperienced he is, but I can see our front 5 really dominating.

MoTM should go to the Shed. They are reffing this game, not the 3 officials. Poorest display I have seen by an officiating team in a long time.

Sale, Peel and Cipriani especially have been shocking.

I think its fair to say we had our share of home decisions! The ref was poor, but we do need to encourage younger people to come through.

It wasn't a classic game, but certainly was a comprehensive win. Would have been nice to push on to get the TBP though but I'd have happily taken that result beforehand. Hopefully Edmonds injury isn't too bad, but it sounds like it was just a precautionary measure for a concussion.