 | MATCH SUMMARY Newcastle (6) 9
Pens: Burke (3) Gloucester (7) 13
Try: Fanolua
Con: Mercier
Pens: Mercier (2) |
Two late penalties from Ludovic Mercier helped Gloucester beat Newcastle and move into third place in the table. Newcastle took the lead through Matthew Burke's penalty, but Terry Fanolua's well-taken try put the visitors ahead.
Two Burke penalties either side of half-time gave Newcastle a 9-7 lead, but Gloucester responded through Mercier's 69th and 74th minute kicks.
Ben Woods almost won the game for Newcastle at the death, only to drop the ball with the try-line beckoning.
The early stages were dominated by the packs, although a superb Mathew Tait break caught the eye before he unluckily slipped.
Burke opened the scoring with a long-range penalty, but a clever pass from Mercier opened up the defence for Fanolua to bundle his way over in the corner.
Tait again went close for Newcastle as the ball just rolled out in goal as he followed up his hack through, but Newcastle did score next through another Burke penalty.
The former Australia full-back went close with another couple of efforts before nailing one for a 9-7 lead.
Mercier responded with his first penalty, and Gloucester showed the nous to force another penalty soon after and move further clear.
A late break from England centre Jamie Noon almost snatched victory for Newcastle, but his pass to substitute Woods went down.
Newcastle director of rugby Rob Andrew
"I've said it before, in this league you have to win your home games. To win well away from home one week and then play like that is frustrating and disappointing. "We just turned up and produced a shocker. If we'd lost to a really good Gloucester side playing well, I could handle that, but we were awful in an awful game.
"If we'd scored at the end and taken four points instead of one, I might have felt a little better, but the game would still have been awful."
Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan
"It's that time of year when players get caught up with where you are in the table, but if we play like that again, we won't be third for very long. "It's great to get the four points and maybe we should rush off and hide because it was a poor game.
"We did play some good rugby in the first half but then we tried to sit on it, got a bit frustrated, lost confidence and we could, and maybe should, have lost the game at the end there."
Newcastle: Burke; May, Tait, Shaw, Elliot; Walder, Charlton; Ward, Thompson, Morris; Perry, Grimes; McCarthy, Harris, Charvis.
Replacements: Noon for Shaw (47), Grindal for Charlton (47), Long for Thompson (40), Wilson for Morris (14), Gross for Perry (72), Woods for Harris (66).
Not Used: Flood.
Gloucester: Goodridge; Bailey, Fanolua, Keil, Simpson-Daniel;
Mercier, Richards; Collazo, M Davies, Sigley; Pendlebury, Brown; Buxton, Hazell, Boer.
Replacements: Tindall for Keil (50), Amor for Richards (50), Wood for Collazo (59), Eustace for Pendlebury (66), Balding for Buxton (44).
Not Used: Elloway, B Davies.
Att: 7,284
Referee: Tony Spreadbury (Bristol)
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
