RUGBY: Minor errors prove costly, says coach Davies (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Gloucester outscore Wasps in tries but it is not enough

12:01pm Monday 18th February 2013 in Sport

GLOUCESTER director of rugby Nigel Davies insists the Cherry & Whites can be Aviva Premiership play-off contenders – provided they correct the minor mistakes that cost them against Wasps, writes Ryan Walters Davies’ troops fell to their third defeat from their last four Premiership games as Billy Vunipola’s try and a Nicky Robinson conversion and penalty with seven minutes to go set up Wasps’ 33-29 win.

Gloucester actually outscored Wasps in terms of tries with Dan Robson, Mike Tindall, Ryan Mills and Charlie Sharples going over, but their fightback – the last two came in the dying minutes – was too late.

They are now four points adrift of Wasps in fifth but Davies believes Gloucester's chance of cementing a place in the top four is as simple as eradicating small but costly errors.

“A couple of inaccuracies in our game allowed them to come back into it but they’ve got quality throughout their team and they finished it off well,” said Davies.

“We showed great character to come back and we missed some chances in the first half that, if we had capitalised on, could have put us further ahead.

“But, in fairness to Wasps, they came back at us strong. We’re in a good place, we’re moving forward but we have a lot of work to do.

“At this level, when you’re playing top-four teams, little things count and we got some little things wrong, which meant we weren’t in control for long enough in the game to get anything.”

Robson scored Gloucester’s first try after 14 minutes before a Stephen Jones penalty and a converted score from Ashley Johnson put Wasps 10-7 ahead.

Rob Cook and Jones exchanged penalties before the break with Tindall’s try after it giving Gloucester the lead once again. However, 20 unanswered points thereafter put paid to their hopes Jones slotted another penalty and converted Christian Wade’s score, while Vunipola followed suit and Robinson took over kicking duties to make it 33-17.

Tries by Mill and Sharples tries set up a nervy last few minutes but Wasps held on with Davies insisting that, on the balance of play, Gloucester should have won.

“It was a fabulous game of rugby first and foremost,” said Davies. “It went from one side to the other but for large periods of the game we were probably the better side.

“To come away with two points, and outscoring them four tries to three, we’ll be pleased with that but disappointed we didn’t capitalise on the chances that we had.”

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