Gloucester smash their way to LV= Cup glory
Gloucester are the LV= Cup Champions after demolishing Newcastle Falcons 10-34 at Franklins Gardens.
Tries from Tom Voyce, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, Charlie Sharples and Darren Dawidiuk were enough to crush a Falcons side who struggled to get into the game.
Welsh Fly-Half Nick Robinson grabbed twelve points from the boot as the Cherry and Whites made defeat in last year's final a distant memory.
Newcastle battled hard throughout the match but their only reward was a consolation try from Luke Eves.
It is Gloucester who lift the Anglo-Welsh trophy with their eleventh straight win and Brian Redpath's men will be ecstatic to claim the first silverware of this year's campaign.
First Half
The opening exchanges consisted mainly of aerial ping-pong with both sides clearly nervous about this tie.
It was Gloucester who struck first with a try from Tom Voyce on six minutes. The Cherry and Whites opted to work the blindside off a scrum, which stretched the Falcons defence and hands across the backline found the veteran winger in enough space to slide over in the corner. Robinson converted the difficult kick. Newcastle 0 Gloucester 7
Despite the try, the early nerves looked to continue with lots of turn over ball for both sides and territorial kicks taking precedent over running Rugby.
It was last year's finalists who started to settle first and a period of pressure with the ball in hand resulted in a penalty on 20 minutes for hands in the ruck. Robinson was successful with his second kick of the game and the lead was stretched to ten points. Newcastle 0 Gloucester 10
Newcastle's chance to reduce the lead was unsuccessful with the penalty from Jimmy Gopperth sailing narrowly wide. And on 28 minutes, Newcastle's hooker Matt Thompson can consider himself lucky to escape a yellow card after stamping unnecessarily in the ruck area.
It took till the half an hour mark for the Falcons to really start working the phases in the Gloucester half. But for all the good work, Junior All Black Gopperth again failed to reduce the deficit- this time from a far easier kick.
The northern-side continued to push but a stolen line out allowed last week's hero Sharples the freedom of Franklins Gardens right touchline as he ran deep into the opposition half. The Falcons managed to scramble back only to concede a penalty although it could have been worse. Robinson missed his first kick of the game.
Second Half
The second half started much they way the first half had with both sides making errors with lots of turnover ball.
Gloucester were given the first opportunity of the half to increase their lead for offside on 51 minutes. Robinson slotted his third of the game to establish a healthy lead. Newcastle 0 Gloucester 13
Then on 57 minutes, Fuimaono-Sapolu scored one of the best tries of the tournament to all but seal the silverware for his side. A neat one-two by the Samoan with replacement Matthew Cox and then a switch with Robinson opened up the defence for the Welshman to slip the ball back inside to the centre who went in under the posts- incredible interlink play by the Cherry and Whites. The conversion was no problem for Robinson. Newcastle 0 Gloucester 20
The nail in the coffin came in the 67th minute from Sharples who finished off good handling by the backs from a dangerous scrum inside the Newcastle 22 yard line. Robinson drew the attention of the defence and a dummy switch in the centres created the overlap for Voyce shift it along the line to subsitute freddie Burns who gave it to Sharples to finish. Robinson banished last week's demons to convert from the far right. Newcastle 0 Gloucester 27
The game was now very much over but Newcastle finally crossed the line of 73 minutes when replacement scrum half Hall Charlton barged over, but the ball was held up.
Fortunately the referee was playing advantage for offside and from the elected scrum, Newcastle finally got on the scoresheet as winger Luke Eves crossed over from Charlton's pass. It was a consolation try that Newcastle deserved and Gopperth added the extras for his first successful kick of the game. Newcastle 7 Gloucester 27
But in the final play of the game, Gloucester went over again with a powerful forwards driving maul in the corner to round off an excellent day for Brian Redpath's men. Darren Dawidiuk claimed the points and needless to say Robinson added the extras in a game where everything was going his way. Newcastle 7 Gloucester 34
The final score Newcastle Falcons 7 Gloucester Rugby 34
