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Ackermann unhappy as Gloucester suffer late panic attack against Connacht
By Ian Cameron
Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann bemoaned the panic that set into their defence late on in their 27-24 Heineken Champions Cup defeat away to Connacht.
Leading by 11 points and with the try bonus point secured thanks to touchdowns from Gerbrandt Grobler, Mark Atkinson (two) and captain Lewis Ludlow, the Cherry and Whites were on course for a very fruitful afternoon’s work at the Sportsground.
However, a yellow card for Ludlow gave Connacht a route back into the match and late tries from replacements Shane Delahunt and Robin Copeland sealed a dramatic comeback victory.
Despite his issue with his defence becoming narrow under duress and the game management during the final few minutes, Ackermann was nonetheless proud of his side’s effort.
“First of all, I’m proud of the players and the effort they put in there,” said the South African, with Gloucester currently second in Pool Five on nine points, one ahead of fourth-round winners Connacht.
“Credit must go to Connacht for scoring the two tries when they needed them – especially the last one I felt was quite special, the way they held onto the ball.
“We probably panicked a bit. If you look at how good our defence was for the whole game and then suddenly we were tight in our defence. We missed a few tackles and they got the try they needed to win the game.
“Saying that we didn’t use the conditions as well as we could. Especially when we had the lead. It is a tough wind that goes into the corner and we played for a lot of time in our half and then there were three crucial (Connacht) penalties. Our discipline was obviously a big thing.”
Connacht head coach Andy Friend praised the attitude of his team as they manufactured a win despite trailing 24-13 with only six minutes remaining.
The westerners will have to target bonus point wins over Toulouse (home) and Montpellier (away) in their remaining pool games, but their quarter-final hopes are at least still alive heading into the New Year.
“We’re still in the competition which is the main thing,” admitted Friend.
“We could’ve done with one more point (with a fourth try) but that was still pretty special.
“The team never gives up, you know they’re not gonna give up. Once we got that try, the second-to-last try, we thought, ‘hang on, we have a shot here’.
“There were only two minutes to go and I thought that was a pretty special passage of play, the offload from Tom (Daly) that goes to Robin Copeland. Great reward for what was a really gutsy last two minutes of football.”
Press Association
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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