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.

HongKongCherry wrote:

B91212 wrote:Saints being linked with Glenn Dickson, an Otago 10 with a supposed big boot. Would make sense seeing as JM stated that although he was looking at a new 10 they would have to be able to cover multiple positions, which this guy can (again supposedly, don't know anything about the guy). Played with Wilson in NZ so probably been recommended and not expected to be offered a Super 15 contract.

Just glad JM didn't mean Cipriani or the orange one when talking about 10's who can cover multiple positions......

Obviously all topics are welcome here, but did you mean to post that here?

Nope. Too busy trying to do a little real work in between posting. I will delete it and move it to your other thread. Apologies

No need to apologise at all

Talk of Saints and 10s here will get us harping and yarping about Mr Lamb and his penchant for rather rotund girls! I'm not surprised you chaps are letting him go. He could have been a great player if he knuckled down.

It is a shame about Lamb. Started well when he first moved to the Saints but then he his form left him after a while. Decent player when things are going well but I ended up watching games on the edge of my seat waiting for his next catastrophic mistake and your right, I'm not really upset to see him leave. Fear he will end up another decent flair 10 who didn't live up to his full potential.

What is this thing with him and rotund girls? I've heard people mention it a few times but know nothing about it.

Your thoughts mirror those of most Glaws fans. On his day he is as good as any and can be a real game winner. The problem is he rarely has those days anymore and ends up becoming a liability. I'd have Myler over him every day!

In terms of his fetish, the word on the grapevine is that in the same way Wayne Rooney likes old grannies, Lamb likes the fatties!

He went on record saying that all Glaws girls were fat. To be honest, he's not far off the truth!

Ah, thanks for that. So he likes them tubby, each to their own I guess. How come Glaws 'ladies' are larger, is it all that cider they drink thinking it's the harmless naturally low calorie juice of freshly squeezed apples?

On a boring rugby related note I was happy to see May playing on the left wing against the Warriors. Any chance that he will be left there long term? Without getting into the Brown at 11 England debate here on the more sensible club section I would really like to see a fully fit May (with plenty of sustained game-time) involved with the full England squad in the near future. He has that x-factor that ideally you want in a wing but his defense isn't too bad either as shown by his ability to play 15 when required. Plus with Cook/Morgan (if he makes it back ) at 15, Sharples seemingly more comfortable & threatening on the right and Simpson-Daniel unfortunately injured yet again and getting on a bit now for a winger then could it fit your teams need the best?

Nigel Davies has said he sees May as a wing. As Sharples is an out and out RW, May is slotting in nicely at LW and looks like this will be his position. Sinbad will still be one of our main players as he can create something out of nothing. He is equally adept on the right as he is the left, so May as LW and Sinbad as RW coud be our line up by the end of the season.

Victorrrrrr brrr bluudy frozen in the top row of the scaffolding stand.
In the howling east wind, about the coldest game I have been to.
When will Bath fix up that toilet know as the 'Wreck'.
Had a nice pint in the Boatman before and after though.

The Rugby:
well Glos were silly with yellow and re cards. Red a bit harsh as Dawidiuk's low CofG got under that lanky 2nd row high CofG and resulted in an ironing board 'flip' which looked a lot worse than it really was. Glos almost won with 14 men on the park for net 30/80 minutes of the match.

It's meant to be cold whilst watching rugby!

It is a mans game after all.

Mr Obogu
I enjoyed queuing in a huddle under the scaffolding for the loo for 15 minutes as it was the warmest part of the evening. I'm surprised Bath qualify for AP membership, seeing as Old Deer Park failed the test. When is your sugar daddy going to find you a proper home ?

Ha when the few local people opposed to the redevelopment of the Rec pass on. (shouldn't be too long now)

LW visit Saturday.

Who would we rather see relegated ?
LW ?
SALE ?

Glos has no love lost with STALE and Oxford Utd ground is closer.
So I want LW to stay up. Should we help them tomorrow ?

The best help we can offer them is by beating Sale in a few weeks. Things are getting a bit too close for the race to be in 4th-6th place, so there is no room for sentiment. Teams are always a little rusty when returning after this point, but I truly hope and expect to see a TBP for us tomorrow.

My crystal ball predicts this side:
Wood, Edmonds, Knight, Lokotui, Hamilton, Savage, Qera, Kalamfoni, Robson, Burns, May, 36, Tindall, Sharples, Cook

Britton, Murphy, Chistolini, James, Buxton, Lewis, Trinder, Thomas

HKC
I like that line up, although HRH does look like an ancient monument alongside the kids.

Do you know if Gav is playing for LW tomorrow ?
Wasted talent. He could have had a great B list TV career, but kept interrupting it to play a spot of rugby.

I liked that line up too, but it's not what we've got! only a few changes, but interesting backrow

Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Mike Tindall, Billy Twelvetrees, Jonny May; Freddie Burns, Dan Robson; Nick Wood, Huia Edmonds, Shaun Knight; Jim Hamilton (capt), Will James; Peter Buxton; Andy Hazell, Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements:

Koree Britton, Yann Thomas, Dario Chistolini, Tom Savage, Akapusi Qera, Dave Lewis, Henry Trinder, Martyn Thomas

I'm quite surprised to see than tanned one playing, has he not seen how cold it's going to be tomorrow??

15. Seb Jewell, 14. Phil MacKenzie*, 13. Gonzalo Tiesi*, 12. Sonny Parker*, 11. Seb Stegmann, 10. Gavin Henson*, 9. Tyson Keats, 1. Tom Bristow, 2. Greg Dan George, 3. James Tideswell, 4. Jonathan Mills (C), 5. Kirill Kulemin*, 6. Julio Cabello Farias*, 7. Michael Hills, 8. Daniel Browne.

Replacements: 16. Greg Bateman, 17. Billy Moss, 18. Arthur Joly, 19. Matt Corker, 20. Adam Balding, 21. Alex Davies, 22. Gordon Ross*, 23. Nick Scott.

The Tango Tanned one from Tal y Bont will be waltzing out to Kingsholm this afternoon. Will Len Goodman be watching do you think ? with Ms Bussell ?
They should be impressed with Jonny May's twinkling feet anyway.
MAX POINTS PLEASE GLAWS !

gregortree wrote:The Tango Tanned one from Tal y Bont will be waltzing out to Kingsholm this afternoon. Will Len Goodman be watching do you think ? with Ms Bussell ?
They should be impressed with Jonny May's twinkling feet anyway.
MAX POINTS PLEASE GLAWS !

Not looking too promising that!

Well that was a load of old tripe! No cohesion with the forwards and backs. The game management was appalling, we did far too many aimless kicks, we butchered overlaps, we had no ball carrying from the forwards. Just dire!

36 was being used as 1st receiver more than any time I can remember and with Welsh's rush defence and him standing deep we just went backwards. We only seemed to get going in the last 20 minutes when Robson started to run with the ball rather than aimlessly kick, and when he was passing more often to a flat Burns. On the subject of Burns, he had a nightmare with the boot, but full credit to him he stuck with it and did the business in the end. Cook had a good game, but he did butcher a few overlaps to utilise Sharples and May.

Q and Savage made a huge difference when they came on and it suddenly sparked K into life as well. Dear old Bucko and Hazell were anonymous for their stint and this may well be their last appearances of the season after that showing. Shaun Knight was playing how I did in my day, absolutely blowing after 10 minutes! I appreciate he's been out for a while, but he looked exhausted. Chistolini made a real difference when he came on and its not often you can say that! One positive was our lineout throwing. I don't think we had one not straight all afternoon, which considering the wind was some feat - but maybe the wind just blew our normal wayward throwing straight!

Ultimately a win is a win, but with Quins and Sarries to come at home and Sale and Exeter away we're going to need to massively improve if we want to win any of those games. Hopefully the short turn around for Quins coupled with the usual Friday night atmosphere at Kingsholm will inspire us to pull out another great performance against Quins.

Rant over!

Worst home performance I can remember seeing this season. And I was frozen. As seemed to be our players. Apart from the set piece scrum LW looked better, and we could not have begrudged them a win. They took a deserved losing BP to chip in to their relegation battle. Burns remains rusty after his injury. I agree about Hazel and Bucko. I felt like were they playing ?

Gloucester Rugby:
Rob Cook; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Billy Twelvetrees, Jonny May; Freddie Burns, Dan Robson; Dan Murphy, Koree Britton, Shaun Knight; Lua Lokotui, Jim Hamilton (capt); Tom Savage, Akapusi Qera, Sione Kalamafoni
Replacements:
Huia Edmonds, Nick Wood, Dario Chistolini, Will James, Andy Hazell, Dave Lewis, Mike Tindall, Martyn Thomas

QUINS

15. Mike Brown
14. Ross Chisholm
13. George Lowe
12. Tom Casson
11. Sam Smith
10. Nick Evans
9. Danny Care
1. Joe Marler
2. Rob Buchanan
3. James Johnston
4. Olly Kohn
5. George Robson
6. Tom Guest
7. Luke Wallace
8. Nick Easter (C)
16. Joe Gray
17. Mark Lambert
18. Will Collier
19. Charlie Matthews
20. Joe Trayfoot
21. Karl Dickson
22. Ben Botica
23. Matt Hopper

Even the Beeb are talking about it, but only 'cos its Quins.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/21942673

A repeat of last year's game would be rather nice. Hopefully the Friday night atmosphere will work it's wonders once again.

I'm not quite sure why we played like it was a Barbarians game and taking aside our woeful defending in the first half, what a game!! May's try was as exhilarating a try as you'll see - to go from a try saving intercept to scoring the other end was just majestic.

K, Q and Savage were excellent as was Lokotui. The sooner May starts playing for England, the sooner England will start scoring tries, the guy is just amazing.

The final cherry on the top was I predicted a 2 point win on SuperBru

A raft of re-signings announced today: Koree Britton, Gareth Evans, Andy Hazell, Will James, Shane Monahan, Dan Murphy, Dan Robson, Yann Thomas and Nick Wood.

http://www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk/news/8468.php#.UVqLGqKyBjR

All pretty much as expected and I strongly suggest these have been tied up for some time. This leaves us needing another TH and SH. Certainly the SH needs to be a back up to Cowan and Robson. The TH situation could be interesting as we may still re-sign Chistolini or bring in another 3rd choice TH in his place, or even get a front line TH and push Harden and Knight further back. I'd prefer we give Knight the game time to develop into the prop we all hope he could become...

Shoot Bath lost too, bang goes an all West Country Final!

Pretty disappointing for us, but at this stage I'd rather we concentrate on getting back into the HC, but it would have been rather nice to beat you in the final!

I think we'll win 2 of our last 3 games, but will just miss out on the play-offs. Bath on the other hand have as about a difficult run in as possible. When you look at the games Wasps and Chiefs have it'll be difficult for you to stay in that top 6.

Yeah, Bath have a nightmare run-in but Glos are capable of beating/losing to everyone!

I said a few games ago that I thought we'd lose away at Bath and at home to Sarries but win the rest. I still think the same and it's not looking unlikely IMO.

The fact Sarries have got into the HC semis should work in our favour. I believe our game against them is the week before. You'd imagine they might rest one or two players, especially if they win the next game as this will pretty much cement their top 2 finish. It would take a very switched on player not to have an eye on the semi against Toulon. I know certainly if the boot was on the other foot we'd all be talking about Toulon and not Sarries!

I feel we're going to beat Sale and Sarries, but lose to Exeter, but as long as we stay above Victor's mob that's all that matters!!

The David Lewis replacement:
Tavis Knoyle:
Gloucester to sign Scarlets & Wales scrum-half
Wales international scrum-half Tavis Knoyle is leaving the Scarlets to join English Premiership side Gloucester, BBC Sport Wales understands.
The 22-year-old, capped nine times by Wales, has signed a two-year deal that will keep him at Kingsholm until the end of the 2014-15 season.
Knoyle was in Wales' 2013 Six Nations title-winning squad

Any one remember a Glos prop called Dan Hodge?

Think he was a 2nd row

Kingsholm officially the home of WORLD RUGBY Gloucester Rugby is delighted to announce that Kingsholm Stadium has today been confirmed as one of the venues to host World Cup Rugby in 2015.
England Rugby 2015 (ER 2015), Tournament Organisers, and Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL), Tournament Owners, today announced the full list of Match Venues and published the Match Schedule for Rugby World Cup 2015, hosted in England.
The 13 Match Venues and Host Cities selected are:
Twickenham Stadium (London), Wembley Stadium (London), Olympic Stadium (London), Millennium Stadium (Cardiff), Manchester City Stadium (Manchester), St James’ Park (Newcastle), Elland Road (Leeds), Leicester City Stadium (Leicester), Villa Park (Birmingham), Kingsholm Stadium (Gloucester), stadiummk (Milton Keynes), Brighton Community Stadium (Brighton) and Sandy Park (Exeter).
Taking the game to ten cities across the country enables England Rugby 2015 to showcase the game to a large audience across the length and breadth of the country.
The Match Schedule will see 25 matches played in dedicated Rugby venues, seven in multi-event stadia and 16 in football venues.
This blend of stadia will provide a variety of Rugby World Cup match day experiences and over two million opportunities for fans to engage with one of the world’s most recognisable major sports events.
The Tournament will open at Twickenham Stadium on Friday September 18, 2015, where England will face Oceania 1, confirmed at the close of the Qualification process in 2014.
In addition to a selection of Pool games, Twickenham Stadium will also host two Quarter-Finals, the Semi-Finals and the Final on October 31.
Two Quarter Finals will also be played in Cardiff at the Millennium Stadium and the Bronze Final will be hosted at the Olympic Stadium.

T'is outstanding news and I shall certainly be attending all 4 games, especially the Argentina and Tonga games, which are likely to be against Georgia, so should be really physical matches.

HongKongCherry wrote:T'is outstanding news and I shall certainly be attending all 4 games, especially the Argentina and Tonga games, which are likely to be against Georgia, so should be really physical matches.

I'll go to as many as I can HKC.
I guess s/t holders have some kind of priority ?

I would have thought we'd get first dibs on any tickets. I wouldn't be surprised to see a season ticket package released for 2015 that combines the ST with all 4 games as I'd definitely be up for that.

I'm just about to renew my ST and I must admit it is good value. I think you're in the same neck of the C&G stand as me (towards the Kingsholm Road end) and it'll work out at £25 per ticket, which is not bad at all.

HKC
yes block J, Silver.
There are 6 of us in a line of seats, old work colleagues + some mates.
We will all be renewing. Glos have some exciting youngsters, esp HB & backs, so I'm hoping for some great rugby next season.

AVIVA PREMIERSHIP AWARDSWell Glaws won something:

Golden Boot:Winner: Freddie Burns (Gloucester Rugby) - 240 points
Runner-up: Gareth Steenson (Exeter Chiefs) - 239 points

Considering the length of time he was out injured it shows how important he's been for us. I can see next year being a huge one for him...

HKC - fully agree.
His upcoming Argie tour for England could cement his international credentials, plus I look forward to his next season at Kingsholm.
Must renew my ticket btw.

Likewise, but we've got until the end of the month to guarantee our seat, so if you're anything like me the renewal will go in on the 31st!!

I am really looking forward to next season. Kvesic and Hudson will add something to our pack that we didn't have last year and the new scrum laws could play into our hands as it looks like technique rather than power will be the key and this will be perfect for Woody. We did have a pretty dreadful time of it on the injury front last season, so hopefully next will be that much better and we'll see the likes of Olly Morgan donning the Cherry & White hoops again!

Who's your choice for captain next season? I definitely want Savage to get the job; he may be young but he clearly has everyone's respect and I really believe he has the potential to be another great Gloucester forward.

HK
I have no strong view on captain, but I agree Savage would be a good choice.
We have lost a few senior big dogs in Jim & Bucko.
Savage sets a classic 2nd row work ethic example. And 2nd row skipper position ? yes that works for me.

Also hope Olly can return, not that Cook has not put in a good season, himself.

Fair well then Hoggy. A great servant to the club who helped us through the transitions of Ryan to Redpath and Redpath to Davies. You can understand why he ahs taken the post as it is a noticeable step up in responsibility, so good luck, except against us!

On the positive front, I have felt at times over the last 2 seasons that our forwards haven't improved as much as they could have. Whilst I am not faulting Hogg as a coach the opportunity to bring some fresh ideas into the club could be a real blessing. The simple question now is who will come in? Moriarty could move over to forwards coach and we bring in a new defence coach (or move Tindall over and bring in a new backs coach!); Dougie has left Wasps and would certainly be welcomed home; has Zed got new employers yet since his departure from Toulon was confirmed? He'd probably be too inexperienced at this point though.

I'd really like to see Glos bring in a SH forwards coach. I reckon if you guys an get consistency there you'll have a cracking season, I'm just not convinced by Moriarty or others moving across. Not sure who's available though.

Also gutted that Howarth has gone to the wasteland that is Worcester. A dull team with zero creativity and losing their best players every year. He's done great things with Wasps backs, I think with a team that had a dedicated defence coach and strong pack he'd be superb. Surprised Tigers didn't take a look at him actually come to think of it.

So we've signed another FH today in Jonny Bentley.  A much needed signing when you think we're likely to be without Burns and 36 for periods of next year, leaving Taylor, Mills and Burns Jnr to fill the void. Mills is likely to be replacing 36, so with an additional 10 seems to make sense. I've only seen him in a handful of games, but I must admit he looked pretty decent.

We just need another prop now...

This has been rumoured for a while I think.  Looks a decent player and could be ideal squad cover for international period.  Probably on a relatively cheap deal, should be happy to take opportunities he can get, however limited (always sounds so patronising but I guess that's just the way it is).

Concerns over recent fitness - his Pirates bio says he's been out for the majority of the last 2 seasons.  Only 4 championship level matches in 2 years could be a problem.  Flyhalf still a massive concern if Burns is out for any considerable period.  Also he is listed at 5'7" and 82kg which is very small for a pro player.  Could be linked to his injury issues?

Despite these question marks, Gloucester have been very good picking up players from the championship in recent years and I trust they've done their due diligence regarding his fitness, so should be a solid signing.  I'm not expecting Kalamafoni impact but hopefully he'll be more fortunate than Drew Locke.

I do feel sorry for Drew Locke. He had good Championship pedigree, but he never got going after being injured in pre-season. He was also signed by Redpath at a time when Tindall was due to be leaving and I don't think anyone foresaw Tinds having the season he just had!

I think Molenaar's days are probably numbered too. I know this is the last year of his contract and I just got the feeling that ND doesn't rate him that highly by how little he was used last season. On his day he's a great club player, but I can see him being behind 36, Mills & Tinds at IC and Trinder, Tinds, May and Monahan at OC for this coming year.

Wiki tells me that Locke turns 27 in September, so perhaps he'll get another shot at a premiership team if he has a storming year back in the championship, but its more likely that this was his chance at the big time.  Very unlucky indeed.

I agree regarding Molenaar.  Solid club pro, won't let you down but probably won't win you a game either.  Probably won't be around beyond the end of his current deal, similarly Tim Taylor.  Not sure about Monahan at 13.  He's obviously got the size to play in the centre but his basic skills are quite poor.  That said, Banahan hasn't done too badly at 13 for Bath so there might be hope for him.

Monahan is more of a crash ball merchant at 13.  He wouldn't work if Tinds was playing IC, but he could be a decent foil for 36 and Mills.  He only played a handful of minutes at OC for us last year, but I know he did more at Rotherham previously.  Ultimately he'd only be a stop gap there, but I feel last year we had too many centres on our books and there comes a point where if there is an injury crisis you just have to draft a winger into the centres, rather than having another specialist growing moss in the A league!

On a different note, I am really looking forward to Stooke playing more first team rugby next season.  He's definitely got the size and if he can develop into a middle jumper, we could have a wonderful long term partnership with him and Savage