Gloucester fight back for convincing win

Gloucester 19 Glasgow Warriors 6

Gloucester produced a devastating second-half to come from behind and beat Glasgow Warriors in a Heineken Cup Pool Two clash at Kingsholm.

Two Dan Parks penalties had handed Glasgow a 6-0 interval lead, but the Cherry and Whites responded with 19 unanswered second-half points.

Nicky Robinson kicked three penalties, while Charlie Sharples and Alex Brown touched down Gloucester avenged last weekend’s 33-11 loss in Glasgow.

Biarritz are all but assured of a quarter-final place as group winners with an unbeaten record, but Gloucester have now seized control of the battle for the runners-up spot after a second win of the competition with two preliminary matches remaining.

The Glasgow pack were the heroes of the first-half.

Time after time as the English side drove into the Warriors’ 22 they were either turned over or penalised by referee Jerome Garces.

Glasgow lock Richie Gray was in the thick of it and stole the line-out throw-in of hooker Scott Lawson three times.

Parks kicked a penalty after Gloucester flanker Andy Hazell was sin-binned for killing the ball at a ruck.

With a man down, Gloucester’s pack was weakened, although they did create the best try-scoring chance of the half through a multi-handed movement that flew from their own 22 to the point of touching down.

However, with Gloucester queuing up to score, wing Dave McCall rescued Glasgow by intercepting an intended scoring pass from Lawson to another Scotland international, flanker Alasdair Strokosch.

Glasgow increased their lead through a long-range drop-goal from Parks and, with Gray, captain Alastair Kellock and tight-head prop Moray Low leading from the front, it was looking bright for the Scotsmen.

Gloucester fly-half Robinson reduced the arrears with a 40-metre penalty that bounced off the crossbar on its way over and levelled the score after 50 minutes with another successful three-point attempt.

Full-back Olly Morgan then dropped the ball with the try-line wide open, while Glasgow scrum-half Chris Cusiter produced a brilliant tackle to deny Gloucester wing Tom Voyce a try in the left corner.

Eventually, though, the pressure told as Robinson threw the ball out right to back row Luke Narraway.

The England international cleverly flipped the ball to wing James Simpson-Daniel who, in turn, fed fellow wing Sharples to sneak past three defenders and score.

Morgan and Sharples were present again in the build-up towards Gloucester’s second try which saw Strokosch deliver a sublime pass to lock Brown in the right corner.

And only a forward pass to Sharples denied the wing a third try on the final whistle as Glasgow finished well beaten.