London Welsh vs Gloucester

From BBC

London Welsh 25-31 Gloucester

LONDON WELSH (9)
Tries: Montanella Conversions: Ross Penalties: Ross 6

GLOUCESTER (18)
Tries: Monahan, Savage, Knight Conversions: Burns 2 Penalties: Burns 3, Twelvetrees

Gloucester edged a hard-fought tussle with London Welsh to extend their unbeaten Premiership run to four games.
Shane Monahan and Tom Savage tries, added to Freddie Burns' eight points gave Gloucester an 18-9 half-time lead.
Welsh's Gordon Ross, who kicked three penalties in the first half, repeated the feat in the second, with Franck Montanella scoring a converted try.

However Billy Twelvetrees' penalty, Shaun Knight's try and further penalties from Burns sealed the win.
The Exiles came into the game on the back of wins against Sale and Exeter Chiefs, and competed well early on as Burns and Ross traded penalties.

However the visitors landed the first telling blow when Burns struck his second penalty before producing two moments of brilliance to create the opening try.

The fly-half launched a break from deep, sidestepping the Welsh defence and only Nick Scott's deliberate batting down of the scoring pass prevented a try.

The Exiles wing was sent to the sin bin and Burns caught the hosts in disarray as he took a quick tap to allow Monahan to get over on the right.

Ross responded with a penalty for Welsh but it was a brief reprieve as more good work from Monahan and wing partner James Simpson-Daniel laid the platform for Savage to barge over.

Two further penalties saw Ross add to the scoreboard, with Burns sin-binned but Welsh infringed moments later after failing to secure their own line-out ball and Billy Twelvetrees restored the nine-point gap.

The Cherry and Whites struggled to contain the Exiles rolling maul, and surge led to Ross' fifth penalty, before a drive saw Montanella adjudged to have grounded the ball in-goal amid the bodies.

A successful conversion from Ross and a penalty looked to have handed the hosts in a winning position with just over a quarter of an hour to go.

But it was not to be as Burns - back on the field - replied with his third penalty and then created Knight's winning try to crown another stellar performance at outside half.

SUNDAY'S LINE-UPS

London Welsh: Jewell; Arscott, Parker, Tonga'uiha, Scott; Ross, Keats; Montanella, Briggs, Ion; Mills, Corker; Browne, Hills, Jackson.
Replacements: Runciman for Jewell (76), Mackenzie for Parker (20), To'oala for Ross (76), Bristow for Montanella (66), George for Briggs (11), Jolly for Ion (52), Kulemin for Browne (75).
Gloucester: Cook; Monahan, Twelvetrees, Tindall, Simpson-Daniel; Burns, Robson; Wood, D'Apice, Harden; Savage, Hamilton; Buxton, Qera, Kalamafoni.
Replacements: Lewis for Tindall (63), Trinder for Robson (63), Murphy for Wood (64).
Sin Bin: Burns (42).
Att: 3,072
Ref: Llyr Apgeraint-Roberts (RFU).

Well done Gloucester on their fourth victory in a row. But also a hearty well done to London Welsh who are starting to prove they are no push overs at their surrogate home.

Well said. Good on London Welsh, they are giving everything and showing that they deserve to be in this league. Delighted with Burns this season, he has really matured and seems to be taking each game by the scruff of the neck.

Ouch, that attendance is disappointing again. LW need more than double that to break even.

The biggest problem for LW is their defence. 18 tries conceded in 5 games is too many.

oh and Glaws only have 2 wins on the bounce.

PS - anyone know why Burns got a YC?

LT, it was a deliberate knock on under the posts.

Glaws should have secured the BP and we need to sort out our defence of mauls, but in general we're going in the right direction. Once again Tom Savage was excellent as was Big Jim. Kalamafoni had a big carrying game too.


If the attendance was truly 3,000 then Welsh stewards need to hang their heads in shame. How it is possible to make such a fiasco of the ticketing is beyond me. Likewise, a fair chunk of that 3,000 would have been stuck outside whilst the game had kicked off. Total shambles.

There were a variety of ticketing and stewarding problems reported by the Tiger Travel Club following the trip to Wembley.

The comon denominator between that and Kassam is we are talking about football grounds with little experience of rugby fans. LW are only tenants and as such get little income from home matches but have to depend on the officials provided with no control over them.

The could host three thousand at old deer park. If we had a big game surely London Welsh could ground share with Quins.

The PRL/RFU should be promoting these kinds of ideas and cooperation between clubs to help reduce the cost of rugby for teams and fans would make a massive difference.

They cannot use Old Deer Park - it does not have the required medical facilities.

That is, and always should be, non-negotiable.

Why can't the PRL/RFU help clubs in England improve their medical facilities.

Seems such a shame that they are forcing so many great London clubs out of the city and into these awful football stadiums with poor stewards.

I am sorry MM, but the LW board are just as culpable as anyone else. They chose to go down the route they did. But this discussion is for another thread and has been done to death.

If they survive (financially and in the table) hopefully they will make progress of the pitch. Being tenants at ODP as well hinders them there.

No space in London, and no soul in the football stadia outside. I feel as a fan, a bit spoilt with Kingsholm, great stadium, sized 'just right' and it is all ours. But apart from Quins, no London club has a decent site.

BTW: well done Welsh for giving a good matchup on the pitch. Only 3000 ? Not sure I saw steward problems, we had advance tickets though, and went in ok. Long queues in bar/ cafe at h/t, that was sure undermanned.
But afterwards Brains beer in the pub marquée was good - dark stout to celebrate.

Difficult situation to find a club without assets a place to play. Quins bought the Stoop in the 60s before that the used to play at HQ. Land prices in London have gone up since.

Selhirst Park would likely have been better as closer to home.

An apology from Welsh regarding the ticket fiasco

http://www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk/news/7753.php

The issue here is that if the attendance was 3,000 (I have read elsewhere it was 4,500) then to have 1,600 stuck in a que, surely they had to delay the start of the match? Even with taking the larger attendance figure into account that means 1/3 of the attendance was stuck.

I am grateful for the apology and I do sincerely hope I have the opportunity to go back to the Kassam next season.

HKC
we had a good day out and would go again.
But I would recommmend 3 points to anyone for next time:

a/ buy tickets in advance
b/ eat / drink outside the stadium at the pub/ beer tent / Frankie & Bennys before / after the game.
c/ dont rely on eating / drinking in the stadium, the bar is just not manned up enough even for the (small) attendance, and does not seem to cope. You also cannot leave H/T to visit the chippy van, as there is no re-entry.

regards

HongKongCherry wrote:The issue here is that if the attendance was 3,000 (I have read elsewhere it was 4,500) then to have 1,600 stuck in a que, surely they had to delay the start of the match? Even with taking the larger attendance figure into account that means 1/3 of the attendance was stuck.

I am grateful for the apology and I do sincerely hope I have the opportunity to go back to the Kassam next season.

I think that the initial attendance released by LW was for advance sales only - with the extra 1500 being the walk up purchasers.

maestegmafia wrote:Difficult situation to find a club without assets a place to play. Quins bought the Stoop in the 60s before that the used to play at HQ. Land prices in London have gone up since.

Selhirst Park would likely have been better as closer to home.

When QPR get relegated Selhurst Park ground share will make more sense than Oxford.

What has QPR getting relegated got to do with LW using Selhurst Park? Crystal Palace play at Selhurst Park - and frankly it is a dump and could take as long to get to as Oxford.

A groundshare with Brentford could have been a decent compromise - though Wasps were looking at that I think.

Best option is the stoop. Harlequins already have one lodger during the summer. Big games could be played at when let or HQ...!

maestegmafia wrote:Why can't the PRL/RFU help clubs in England improve their medical facilities.

Seems such a shame that they are forcing so many great London clubs out of the city and into these awful football stadiums with poor stewards.

Adams Park (Wasps) is perfect for rugby from a 'watching the game' pov. No obstructed views and the stewards are excellent imo.

There are long queues for the food and drink outlets at ht, but then again I don't drink at the ground, and will buy food if I need it during a break in play.

However I can't wait for the day we have our own ground again.

Well done to Welsh on the pitch though. They are proving me wrong as I really thought they would struggle at this level.

maestegmafia wrote:Best option is the stoop. Harlequins already have one lodger during the summer. Big games could be played at when let or HQ...!

Two Rugby teams playing at the Stoop would destroy the pitch.

Quins will never ever share the Stoop, it's just an idiotic idea. Welsh need to get their house in order and should have done it before they got promoted. At least now with a taste of Prem action if they do drop down they'll know exactly what needs to be worked on.

They desperately need to build a fan base as they are starting from the lowest level ever for promoted sides. As I said on another thread, their attendances last season hovered aroung the 1,000 mark (According to statbunker average attendance was 1,270 with a maximum of 2,290 and a minimum of 365).

Can they build a fan base in SW London? I am not sure how many people are out there willing to go to matches week in week out that have not been hoovered up by Quins.

Oxford does seem like an area ripe for rugby development - and if they survive this season LW have plans to buy a stake in the Kassam. Downside is they have moved a long way from their spiritual home.