Miquel kicking sinks Gloucester

Agen 26 Gloucester 18

Gloucester's bid to reach the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup was thwarted by four late penalties from the unerring boot of Agen fly-half Jerome Miquel tonight.

The French side simply had too much power and mobility in every position in the first half of a thrilling game at the Stade Armandie and Gloucester ran out of numbers to cover them.

Their unstoppable Fijian winger Rupeni Caucaunibuca opened the scoring in the ninth minute, taking quick ball from a midfield scrum, stepping inside James Simpson-Daniel and then out of Olly Morgan's reach to make a 60-metre dash for the line.

Centre Arnaud Mignardi ran in Agen's second try from a delightful move that started with Dave Vainqueur taking Ryan Lamb's high kick.

Manu Ahotaeiloa was also involved as Agen broke down the narrow channel along the right touchline to send Mignardi in under the posts, with Miquel adding his second conversion.

Balshaw had Gloucester's best chance, but opted to go himself rather than bring Foster infield and was thudded into touch five metres short.

As the visitors began to assert some pressure they revealed a few chinks in Agen's armoury, notably their over-zealous approach to tight phases

After a series of penalties that Ryan Lamb kicked into the corner, Willem Stolz pulled down one maul too many and was sinbinned.

Gloucester took advantage but squandered another opportunity when Lamb's kick had too much weight on it.

They were pushed back to their own half, but a solid set-piece enabled Adam Balding to feed Rory Lawson and the scrum-half raced up the left wing before feeding Balshaw for the score.

Lamb failed to convert, but there was at least a glimmer of hope after a torrid opening quarter.

Even when Caucaunibuca gratefully accepted Anthony Allen's palm-down and glided back into Gloucester's half, drawing Mike Tindall to pile into a ruck and get sinbinned for going over the top, Agen were unable to add to their tally. Miquel slipped when taking the penalty.

Neither side could take charge as half-time approached and their causes were not helped when they lost a prop apiece, Laurent Carberry and Carlos Nieto, to the sinbin for fighting just before the interval.

Despite being down to 13 men, Gloucester ended the first half on the attack and, when both sides were restored to their full compliment again eight minutes into the second half, it was the English club who looked the more secure.

Caucaunibuca continued to threaten but was halted by replacement centre Peter Richards inside Gloucester's 22 and from there the visitors rallied.

Lawson got good ball out to Tindall and then Balshaw and Simpson-Daniel on the 22. The winger broke Vainqueur's tackle twice before he reached halfway and then popped the ball inside for Richards to run in unopposed.

Lamb added the conversion and then a penalty, after Vainqueur was shown a yellow card for killing the ball in front of his posts, to nudge Gloucester into a four point lead.

But they conceded three sloppy penalties in 10 minutes and Miquel put Agen five points clear with injury-time remaining.

Gloucester ran back at them but wasted three more chances, including a snatched penalty on Agen's 10-metre line when Jake Boer lost the ball in the tackle.

To compound matters, Boer received the sixth yellow card of the match for tripping Caucaunibuca and Miquel punted three more points to leave Gloucester's Heineken Cup hopes a fading dream.