Vickery and Fortey under pressure

NIGEL MELVILLE and Dean Ryan have sent out a clear warning to Phil Vickery and Chris Fortey — don’t think you are going to walk back into the side for Saturday’s game at Thomond Park.

Melville and Ryan, director of rugby and coach, respectively, at Gloucester, were understandably delighted with the performance of their front-row trio at Kingsholm, even though they were short England World Cup hero Phil Vickery because of injury and Fortey, their number one hooker, through suspension. Both will be available for Limerick but may yet have to settle for a place on the bench.

Given that Vickery is on the short list to replace Martin Johnson as England captain when (not if, by all accounts) he announces his retirement from international rugby this week, this is a clear indication of the wave of confidence sweeping through the Gloucester camp at the moment.

"I would like to think Vickery will be fit," mused Melville. "Whether he gets in the team or not, I don't know. Andy Deacon has been fantastic. He worked really hard and we didn't have any problems whatsoever in the scrums."

Ryan, who is known as a tough taskmaster and to have also been irate at Fortey getting himself sent off in a recent Zurich Premiership game, lavished praise on his replacement Chris Collins, who was playing his first Heineken Cup game and was obviously under a lot of pressure. Yet he found it a simple task to find his jumpers, chiefly the excellent Alex Brown towards the front and middle, and Junior Paramore at the back, while he was also a key member of a strong scrummaging machine.

"I don't think enough could be said about Chris Collins, he was a real credit to himself," said Ryan. "With Fortey suspended, this was a real area of concern. He had to prepare himself for an environment in which he had never been before. He did nothing wrong during the game. I thought our line-out was starting to come under pressure in the second half but I can't pay him enough credit given that performance." Although disappointed that a series of early attacks on the Munster line didn't yield at least one try, Melville reasoned: "While we had the ball, they were having to work hard in defence and a lot harder than we were and that told in the end. Team-wise, player-wise, I think we may be a little bit weaker than last year, but I think we are a bit smarter as well and I'm just pleased that we took some good decisions today. We played well as a team which is very important, especially coming up to the game at Thomond Park."

There is no doubt Gloucester will be all-out to avenge the "miracle match" of this time last year at the Limerick venue. On that occasion, Henry Paul suffered nightmares. But he was full-back then, this time he'll be in the centre and oozing with confidence after his classy, 17-point contribution at Kingsholm. Melville believes that this time he'll be a potential match-winner rather than the team's Achilles heel.

"He's a very smart player, he asks questions of defences," said Melville. "He works well with Duncan McRae. He does little things with his feet, just reading the game and thinking of ways of playing the game.

Another of his side to please Melville was his young full-back Jon Goodridge, the substitute for the injured South African World Cup full-back Thinus Delport.

"He had a great game for such a young lad."

And, finally, on Thomond Park next Saturday, Melville commented: "We went there last year with a lot of ambition and not with a feeling of trepidation. We went there to play and we didn't play on the day. That's something we've got to make sure we put right this time."