by Never Sleep
I was on the supporters coach to Bristol and the experience with Zeelo was less than perfect and I was therefore pleasantly surprised when I received an email from Barney at Zeelo offering a free seat on the coach to Kingsholm. I had not been to Kingsholm before and I thought that this would an ideal time to do my first visit.
I really didn't have high hopes for a win, but I was really hoping that we could eek out a losing bonus point. My prediction on Superbru was for a hammering. Gloucester have looked pretty good so far (excepting the Sarries game). However, I did feel a little more positive when I saw that Big Kev, Brownie and Visser were back. I am a big fan of Mike Brown and I think that we are generally a better team all with him on the pitch.
So, I made my way down to the Stoop on Saturday morning with a rather heavy back pack. Last week, we ran out of beer on the way to Bristol and had to buy the expensive stuff at M&S on the way. This time I had Tesco's Premium lager (and no, I hadn’t won the Euro-millions on Friday night). The weather was gorgeous.
The coach was on time and there were a few familiar faces even though there were not many of us waiting. On the stop off at Bracknell, we picked up a few more (who only made it by the skins of their teeth).
The trip this week was eventless and on time – which was nice. We arrived at the stadium with plenty of time and went to the Kingholm Inn for a few pre-takeoffs. At this stage, we decided to switch to cider. A word of caution for those visiting this pub. The gents on the right hand side of the bar does not have an inside door handle and you need someone to let you out. You have been warned. For people who want to do some sight-seeing while in Gloucester, you can actually see the cathedral from the windows of the pub.
I asked some Gloucester supporters where the stadium was and they suggested turning left on existing the pub and walking approximately two miles. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they were incorrect and the stadium was actually over the road.
We went to the Stowford Press stand to find our seats. It is basically their version of the South Stand. Underneath the stand are a number of bars. The Stowford Press bar was selling Rhubarb Cider (in 2 pint buckets), When in Rome . . .
I tried to teach the Gloucester supporter in the stand how to sing “Come all without” – but they really were not getting it.
So, kickoff happened. They scored a try. We matched it. Then we scored again pretty soon after (although I thought that the Marchant pass may have been a bit forward). We went through the normal thing of giving away loads of penalties and getting another yellow card for our collection.
Forward? Never!There was some confusion as they reported that it was Big Kev sent off – but I think it was actually Symonds. We had a period when we had a player down with what looked like a dislocated finger and Sharples scored a try when we were basically down to 13 men. We came back at the end of the half with a penalty and half time was 18-15 to them. It felt like a fair result. Some Gloucester fans explained the rule behind when you can shout Eyeore and when you shouldn’t – but, I can’t remember them.
During the second half, the sun swung round a bit and I was sitting in full sunshine – it was lovely. However, we did need to salute the players during the entire second half.
Quins upped the intensity in the second 40. We played virtually the whole half down at the other end. We scored a few penalties and butchered a couple of try scoring opportunities. Eventually we had managed to get 6 points in front – but then Gloucester scored a try (which I feared was going to be a killer blow). However, we managed to get another penalty. Smith unfortunately hit the uprights. But we still carried on pushing for a win.
Late on, we bought on loads of replacements and we smashed a Gloucester scrum and Smith kicked the resulting penalty to put us back in front. (I may have my sequence of events wrong).
We then just had to hang on for a few minutes. The ball came down our end and went out of play when the clock appeared to be dead. But, for some reason, they restarted with a Gloucester scrum. We defended heroically and managed to get the ball out of play and therefore chalked up our first away win for a long time.
After the game we went to applaud the players. I asked Boyce if had actually been on the pitch – even though he was apparently part of the front row that smashed their scrum. (Sorry Lewis!)
Then the comedy moment. I leaned on the barrier fence to find that the barriers are only Velcro-ed on. As a result, I fell on the pitch and did a tortoise impression.
We went back to the bar – but, they had run out of Rhubarb cider – so I ordered a bucket of some sort of berry cider.
Then back to the coach for a jolly good sing-song and some more beer. Apparently, we all have brand new combine harvesters.
All that is left to say is that I am really very sorry.