Pau seal home play-off following 24-34 win over Gloucester

Gloucester Rugby 24-34 Pau, Kingsholm
Scorecard

A dominant second-half performance saw Pau went on to beat Gloucester Rugby with a 24-34 margin at Kingsholm on Friday to secure a home quarter-final berth in the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

Pau maintained the top position in Pool 3 with 29 points while Gloucester having already secured a play-off berth before the game ended up with 21 points.

After the first 14 minutes went without a point, Jeremy Thrush crossed over for Gloucester that was improved by Billy Twelvetrees as the home side claimed a seven point lead.

Pau's reply came from a double penalty from Colin Slade in the 28th and 35th minutes respectively and Steffon Armitage soon went past the line with the fly-half converting that gave Pau six-point lead heading into the second half.

Twelvetrees kicked his first penalty after the restart to bring down the gap to three points but Frank Halai and Lourens Adriaanse burst over the line in quick succession to put the visitors 27-10 ahead on the hour.

Replacement Callum Braley helped Gloucester make a comeback with a try in the 62nd minute but his efforts were negated when Daniel Ramsay touched down six minutes later.

As the final 10 minutes kicked-off, Pau had a 17-34 lead while Jake Polledri's try in the closing stage that was improved by Slade helped Gloucester reduce the losing margin to 10 points.