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Gloucester look like a side that can challenge for the top four - or is it just another false dawn?

Willi Heinz makes a darting run
Willi Heinz makes a darting run Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Gloucester are my Arsenal: a big club who have been too far off the pace for too long. 

My frustration is not born out of a dislike for the club. Far from it. I love Gloucester and all it represents. Rugby and Kingsholm - the hub of the city. The Shed. Banter. Tough people. 

The old days were epic down there. Rumours of watered pitches to turn it into a farmer’s field so they could slow any attacking side down and turn it in to a giant arm wrestle. Travelling fans invited to a tug-of-war against ordinary-sized Gloucester fans, who promptly disappeared as the big lads walked out from behind The Shed and humiliated you. 

In a multi-media age I admire their followers on social media. They are not the type for rose-tinted spectacles. They know when they have been poor. They want answers not heads, and do not blame others. Even so, there have been harsh words needed, especially last season. There is so much talent and the players have shown glimpses of such excellence that sometimes you had to question what you were watching. 

In the same season last year, sometimes within the same two-week period, Gloucester could produce magical rugby that had you joining in the famous “Gloucester, Gloucester” chant. In the middle of February, when they took Saracens apart, they looked a top-four team - no question. Gloucester became the first team last season to score three tries against the ominous ‘Wolf Pack’. It was not just the passion of a home performance; there was real skill, guile, pace, threat. And away at Bristol they scored a try that Willi Heinz started with his toe almost on his own dead-ball line. It was heads-up, ruthless, lightning-fast rugby. 

But sadly, just as with the positives, I could flow on with the negatives. They were battered by Bath 44-20, and at one stage were 39-8 behind. At the time I wrote: “Classic Gloucester - fallen apart”. Other matches, similar words: “Shambles” v Leicester; “Soft tries conceded” most weeks. I could go on. This team that could be sublime was, at other times, “a group of schoolboys thrown out there and just told to win the game”. That quote is not mine. It is from Graeme Souness, two weeks ago, watching Arsenal get taken apart by Liverpool 4-0. The same can be said of the Cherry and Whites. 

Part of me had given up a little on singing their praises, so why am I writing about Gloucester so early, after just one week? Well, I like a guilty pleasure. I like to go back, like Kevin Costner in Tin Cup, and make the big shot. 

I am not here to tell you what you know but what I hope you will know; Gloucester look different, they look like a side that can challenge for the top four. Last year’s Gloucester would not have stood a chance. This lot may just have a crack at it. 

In their first game against the Exeter Chiefs they were a long way from perfect, but there was also so much to like. 

A 22-year-old back row forward - Lewis Ludlow - making nearly 30 tackles, some of real venom. 

The short kicking game of Billy Burns that matches anyone’s in the league. Billy overplays the chip, yet if he can find a centre, or foil, who can help him judge when to use it, then, in a world of ferocious press defence, Gloucester’s short kicking game will play an increasingly important role. It will be vital to get in behind the midfield, to check the full-backs from closing the door on the outside too quickly, and from keeping wingers back from pressing as a midfield four. 

Billy Burns directs play against Exeter
Billy Burns directs play against Exeter Credit: GETTY IMAGES

They have a great balance in the second row. Jeremy Thrush, clever, aware, a classic Kiwi who could play centre. Tom Savage, classically English; battering people, getting up and battering again. John Afoa, Richard Hibbard and Ben Morgan can grind and move, while Willi Heinz at nine is a player I love watching.

A midfield of Mark Atkinson and Andy Symons - two ridiculously tall lads for centres, and I say that from my greenhouse – provide offloads, threats and handling. And they have young lads out wide who run straight and hard. Henry Purdy could be a real weapon this year and Gloucester have picked up Bristol’s superstar 15 Jason Woodward. He had an average game by his standards last week and still won the match with a brilliant read of the play, angled run, and the power to crash over. 

There was real physicality to Gloucester. Ed Slater is a great signing. Why have Leicester let this lad go? He is a monster in the maul and set-piece, knows how to handle and is a real leader. 

Ruan Ackermann in the back row is a wrecking ball and sensational ball carrier, while behind the pack, Matt Scott had to start on the bench, which shows their strength. The Scottish centre scored a hatful of tries last year and cuts a clean line through defences. 

Ruan Ackermann in action against Exeter
Ruan Ackermann in action against Exeter Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Billy Twelvetrees is another all-action hero off the bench. And there are players still to be used: Ross Moriarty is an awesome physical specimen whose Lions tour was cut short through injury, while Owen Williams, a casualty of the Freddie Burns-George Ford fly-half swap at Leicester and Bath, has moved closer to home and Wales. 

With the win in the bag, there were celebrations in the changing room afterwards marking Tom Savage’s 150th game for the club. They were not celebrations of “job done”. They were celebrations supporting a lad who would do anything for the club. Every club needs these men and it points to a tightness and a togetherness that suggests that Gloucester will stick out tough times. 

Woodward
Credit: GETTY IMAGES

They have a heck of a trip on Saturday to prove they are different this year. Harlequins were poor against London Irish and will be hurting. They have too many England players and future England players in their squad not to come out full of pace, aggression and the intent to bury Gloucester. 

So, almost immediately, we get the opportunity to test my ‘new Gloucester’ theory. I am not advocating putting all your money on them to win the league. Or even to win at Harlequins. I am suggesting that you will see a steel, a nerve, a desire to fight for each other that will grow at Gloucester this season. 

It will make them a side you have to beat for 80 minutes and put away right up to the death. And that, after all, is what has always made Gloucester sides great to watch, and a real pain to play against. 

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