Rugby story by Brian Watters, Tue, 03 Jan 2006 02:32:00 GMT


Leeds compounded their own agony at the bottom of the table by yet another listless display that saw them lose 31-7 to Gloucester in a Guinness Premiership match yesterday. Gloucester are now in the third place on the table and are in contention to book an automatic place in next season's Heineken Cup.

For Leeds it was a procession of players to the sin bin and in the end this proved pretty decisive. Rob Rawlinson, Gordon Ross and Jordan Crane all of them invited referee Rob Debney's ire for varying reasons and had to sit out in the sin bin. It is significant to note that all of Gloucester's touchdowns came when Leeds did not have the full complement of 15 layers. They were finally able to secure a bonus ponit in the 88th minute courtesy James Simpson-Daniel.

Gloucester were 24-0 up in no time and Leeds were reeling under the referee's cosh as well as the opposition's relentless attacks. That they managed to squeeze some consolation points was again through the penalty kicks though the referee deem not deem it wise to send and Gloucester player to the sin bin.

Dean Ryan, the Gloucester head coach was none too pleased with his team's performance, “We just didn't show the ambition we wanted,” Ryan commented after the game. “We showed a lot last week. But ambition when you're down 20 points is different from ambition when you're up by 20.” Ryan referred to the match as “an appalling spectacle”. By contrast Leeds rugby director Phil Davies is in an uncomfortable position for sure, "We can take a lot out of it today in terms of the pride and the way we played in the second half," he rued. "When we had 15 players on the pitch we looked pretty decent. It is about keeping the hard work going."

Match Details
Referee: R Debney (Leicestershire).

Gloucester: O Morgan; M Foster, J Simpson-Daniel, M Tindall (T Fanolua 62), J Bailey; L Mercier, P Richards (H Thomas 66); N Wood (T Sigley 62), M Davies, P Vickery (capt), A Eustace (J Pendlebury 60), A Brown, J Boer (R Elloway 79), A Hazell (B Davies 91), A Balding (P Buxton 54).

Leeds: D Doherty; A Snyman, R Vickerman (C Bell 55), C Jones, T Biggs; G Ross, D Care; K Lensing (M Shelley 55), R Rawlinson (G Bulloch 61), R Gerber, S Hooper (capt, J Dunbar 55), T Palmer, S Morgan (Bulloch 14-24), R Parks (N Thomas 55), R Reid (J Crane 55).

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