Gloucester Wades into play-offs
MATCH REPORT: Gloucester – beaten finalists last year – moved to the top of Pool Three of the Challenge Cup, Europe’s second-tier competition.
The Cherry and Reds scored a convincing 31-7 win over Scarlets at Kingsholm on Friday.
After three tries in the first half, Gloucester secured the bonus point midway through the second half before Christian Wade finished an end-to-end try to take the win.
Capitalising on a loose ball, Wade kicked and chased four times from inside his own 22, just getting a fingertip down on the ball after the final perfectly weighted nudge for a classic score.
The try sealed a 31-7 win for the hosts, with flyhalf Santi Carreras being named Player of the Match.
Having come into the starting lineup for Tomos Williams, young scrumhalf Caolan Englefield burst over the line from close range with a dummy and dart to give the hosts the perfect start.
Before Gloucester extended their lead from a driving-maul line-out, with Jack Clement at the back to touch down, and Santi Carreras converted again.
George Barton then put his foot on the gas to slide over just after the half-hour mark to stretch Gloucester’s lead to 19-0, which they kept up to the break.
Breaking off of a driving-maul line-out, hooker Seb Blake powered over to make it 24-0 after 50 minutes.
Scarlets finally got on the board with a slick score, Ioan Lloyd poking a grubber through before a quick offload from Taine Plumtree put Eddie James through for their first points of the match.
The scorers
For Gloucester
Tries: Englefield, Clement, Barton, Blake, Wade
Cons: Carreras (2), Barton
For Scarlets
Try: James
Con: Lloyd
Teams
Gloucester: 15 George Barton, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Josh Hathaway, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Caolan Englefield, 8 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Lewis Ludlow (captain), 6 Jack Clement, 5 Arthur Clark, 4 Freddie Thomas, 3 Ciaran Knight, 2 Jack Singleton, 1 Mayco Vivas
Replacements: 16 Seb Blake, 17 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 18 Kirill Gotovtsev, 19 Cameron Jordan, 20 Freddie Clarke, 21 Albert Tuisue, 22 Tomos Williams, 23 Charlie Atkinson
Scarlets: 15 Ioan Lloyd, 14 Ellis Mee, 13 Macs Page, 12 Eddie James, 11 Blair Murray, 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Archie Hughes, 8 Vaea Fifita, 7 Josh Macleod (captain), 6 Taine Plumtree, 5 Max Douglas, 4 Alex Craig, 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Marnus van der Merwe, 1 Kemsley Mathias
Replacements: 16. Shaun Evans, 17. Alec Hepburn, 18. Gabe Hawley, 19. Sam Lousi, 20. Jarrod Taylor, 21. Gareth Davies, 22. Joe Roberts, 23. Ioan Nicholas
Referee: Jeremy Rozier (France)
Assistant referees: Jonathan Gasnier (France), Jean Lespes (France)
TMO: Thomas Charabas (France)
Source: @ChallengeCup_
