Top-six place not out of the question (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Top-six place not out of the question

6:53pm Monday 8th March 2010

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GLOUCESTER went down 24-19 to London Wasps on Sunday yet an away win was not out of the question for the Cherry and Whites until late on.

However, it is always an uphill task if your opponents build up an early 13-0 lead.

Wasps were a determined outfit after the previous week’s defeat against Leeds, but Gloucester got it back to 13-13 in the second half.

Big games turn on very small things. Next time, Taylor may well kick the penalty he missed from 30 metres and Delve will win the race for the try after a break from a scrum and a delicate chip ahead that Van Gisbergen got to first. But neither was successful and the win was agonisingly close, in spite of a Tindall solo effort try that promised much.

The difference in the end was a Lemi try for Wasps in the 71st minute. But these are the games that have to edge your way if you are to get into the play-off positions. Wasps go to fourth, but Gloucester are far from down and out.

Their best efforts, if and when reproduced, could be just about enough to claw a top-six place. They are now on 32 points along with Harlequins, and the nerves must be well shredded at Newcastle (28), Leeds (27), Worcester (25) and Sale (23). The bottom end of the league is no place for faint hearts now!

Professional rugby threw up two very different scenarios last week, but they both tell an interesting tale.

James Haskell was required back in Paris by his club, Stade Francais, at the same time that he was required by England for training. It is amazing that the contract situation should allow any doubt as to who can do what, yet it has happened and the poor old player is pig in the middle, while Anglo-French hostilities break out again after hundreds of years of (relative) peace.

When the game went professional, the general feeling was that England should have got the top players contracted before the clubs got organised.

Unfortunately, there was not the money as the RFU had just embarked on a massive stadium improvement programme, which meant that the game was always going to be trying to lock the stable door after the horse had bolted.

We ended up with the best stadium in the world without a team to grace it. And the clubs will always require large sums to alleviate the pain when they lose their best players to international duty.

Leicester were next to show their hand with the news that they were to let Lewis Moody free from the club to join Bath. This was a massive statement of confidence and the Tigers are to wave goodbye to an international who has been part of their success since he was at school.

I doubt if many other clubs would have the clout to pull such a stunt, but you can see where they are coming from.

Salary caps are tightening and there will be more stringent policing of that cap; international players are away from the club scene for too long, so the money spent on them is not likely to be a good investment for the club.

And there is a little matter of the Rugby World Cup, which will denude the clubs of their main assets (players) for even longer periods.

That single decision by Leicester worried me more than some of their playing successes, for they showed that they have well and truly caught up with what professional attitudes and decisions are all about.

Even Sir Alex at Man Utd would have been proud to have been associated with that one!

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