Challenge Cup: Champs seek consistency

The English outfit will now travel to La Rochelle for their Thursday night Challenge Cup Pool Four showdown at Stade Marcel Deflandre intent on taking another big step in their defence of their European crown.

Gloucester failed to add to their three tries and 23 first half points against Zebre so there was no try bonus point to celebrate and Director of Rugby David Humphreys hopes that will not cost them in the long haul to the knock-out stages and that they will start producing greater consistency.

"The starting point is always to win the game and we did that pretty much by half-time," he said. "In Europe bonus-points are key, whether to win the pool, qualify from the pool, get a home quarterfinal – hopefully we won't look back and regret it too much.

"The first half was really good, the second half disappointing and that sums up the last six or seven weeks for us.

"Certain parts were very pleasing but for some reason we just don't manage to take it through 80 minutes. The conditions definitely had a factor, they deteriorated in the second half, the wind picked up and the rain came in.

"From a positive point of view the first half was as good as we have seen this season, we controlled the game well, the set-piece was very good, the two or three chances that came along we took them all, there was a bit of opportunistic skill from Billy [Burns] and some good inter-play tries. A lot of the stuff we've been working on was showing in that first half."

Meanwhile, Newport Gwent Dragons Director of Rugby Lyn Jones wants his side to recreate the performance that brought down Stade Francais in Paris last season when they head to Castres Olympique for the second round of the Challenge Cup this weekend.

Jones was delighted to see his side finally finish off their chances in the 30-12 bonus-point win over Sale Sharks, but insists that last season's semifinalists must repeat their heroics of last season in the French capital if they are stand any chance of progressing from their pool.

"It's a great start to the tournament for us given how strong this pool is. Now we have to back it up in Castres next week," said Jones.

"We appreciate that if you want to do anything in Europe you have to be able to go to France and win. We did that last year against Stade Francais and that set us up for a great campaign.

"This season we have two opportunities to do that again, starting on Saturday against Castres, and it's vital we are competitive and get something from the game."

The Dragons also have to cross the channel to face Pau in the back-to-back games in Pool 2 next month, but a maximum four points against the two-times winners from the Premiership was the perfect start.

"We were very pleased with our performance. We played well last week but this time we wanted to make sure we finished our opportunities and we did that," said Jones.

"We came here to be positive and to score four tries. We had to wait until the 75th minute but I was pleased the players got their reward for their effort.

"Our half-backs controlled the game very well and they had a good mix in their game. Our kicking game was effective, we played with tempo and speed and we had a good blend between our forwards and backs.

"The only disappointments were conceding two tries from mistakes at the line-out. We put ourselves under pressure there and conceded 12 points.

"The other disappointment is Lewis Evans. He has suffered a recurrence of a calf problem and we don't know how long he will be out. He is devastated at suffering another injury."

Challenge Cup Round One results:

Harlequins 41 Montpellier 18

Brive 13 Newcastle Falcons 9

Edinburgh 28 Grenoble 10

Connacht 31 Enisei-STM 14

Cardiff Blues 50 Calvisano 9

Worcester Warriors 19 La Rochelle 3

London Irish 48 Agen 10

Gloucester 23 Zebre 10

Pau v Castres (Postponed)

Newport Gwent Dragons 30 Sale Sharks 12