Gloucester Win at the Death Amid Controversy

Billy Twelvetrees kicked a controversial last minute penalty to earn Gloucester their first victory of the season with a 26-24 win against play-off contenders Northampton Saints at Kingsholm.

Freddie Burns settled any pre match nerves with a well-struck penalty to put the hosts 3-0 up. However it didn’t take too long for saints to hit their straps and they went ahead when Luther Burrell’s powerful midfield run allowed Ben Foden space out wide and he duly dotted down after showing some neat footwork. 

Gloucester’s cause was helped somewhat when referee Martin Fox sin-binned Northampton number eight, Ben Dickinson, for tackling James Simpson-Daniel in the air. Despite this it was Northampton who added to the scoreboard next with Stephen Myler kicking a penalty.

Gloucester needed a response and they found one soon after as a scintillating backs move, executed with pace and accuracy, eventually saw Sharples cross in the corner. Burns missed the conversion to leave Northampton with a 10-8 advantage at half-time.

The beginning of the second-half saw Gloucester try to impose themselves and take control of the game. When a penalty was awarded in the Northampton 22 it seemed responsibility would be given to burns to give Gloucester the lead, however former all black scrum-half Jimmy Cowan acted instinctively with a quick tap penalty and gave the ball to Twelvetrees who arced outside Burrell to score. 

The shed had barely stopped cheering before Northampton had taken the lead again. Infringements around the ruck from Gloucester allowed Myler to put the ball in the corner and set-up one of saints driving mauls. After a powerful surge Manu Samoa scored under a pile of bodies. 

In what was fast becoming an epic, Gloucester responded again through the boot of Burns to put them within one point of Northampton.

As the 70-minute mark fast approached Gloucester pounded the Northampton try line. Resolute defence kept them at bay until Simpson-Daniel produced a trademark moment of magic; cutting back against the drifting defence in front of him, stepping viciously of his right foot and delivering the ball one handed to debutant Elliot Stooke who crashed over from close range. 

Gloucester had seemingly done enough to earn their first win of the season, but this game was far from done.

With Burns forced to go off through injury, Twelvetrees slotted in to the fly-half role. Minutes remained when he kicked the ball behind the Northampton back three, George North, who had been kept relatively quite for the most part of the game, produced what looked to be a match winning run down the left hand touchline and the ball eventually found its way to Jamie Elliot who sprinted away from the Gloucester defence to touch down underneath the posts. Elliot now has an impressive 10 tries in 10 starts for the saints and may have already scored one of the tries of the season.

Gloucester looked down and out, but with 30 seconds remaining on the clock there was still time. They retrieved their own kick off when it seemed they had more than one player in front of the ball. They were eventually awarded a scrum much to the annoyance of Northampton’s coaching staff, Jim Mallinder and Dorian West and after a couple of resets the saints pack were deemed to have infringed and Gloucester were awarded a penalty in front of the posts approximately 40 metres out. Twelvtrees cooly converted the penalty to seal victory for the cherry and whites.