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Zach Mercer earns Gloucester victory in tight affair in Edinburgh
By PA
Gloucester clinched their place in the last 16 of the EPCR Challenge Cup as they held on for a narrow 21-20 win at Edinburgh on Saturday.
The English side were outscored by three tries to two, but Zach Mercer’s 73rd-minute touchdown, converted by Adam Hastings, proved decisive in the Pool Three clash.
Their victory was their third in succession in the competition, while defeat left Edinburgh needing to beat Scarlets next time out to be sure of joining them in the next round.
A Glen Young try gave Edinburgh the lead after Gloucester lost Seb Atkinson to the sin-bin, but Louis Rees-Zammit scored a superb reply and Hastings landed three penalties.
Edinburgh hit back to regain the lead with tries from Ewan Ashman and Ben Vellacott after the hour, but the hosts were unable to hang on.
Welsh side Dragons fell just short as they were beaten 20-17 at Zebre Parma in Pool One.
Dragons led 12-8 at half-time after four Cai Evans penalties, but the Italians had crossed through Simone Gesi and another try from Jacopo Bianchi after the break put them ahead.
Gesi’s second try extended Zebre’s lead and the hosts held firm after Jared Rosser touched down to set up a tight finish.
Scarlets also suffered defeat as they went down 38-17 in their Pool Three clash at Clermont Auvergne.
The 26th-minute sending off of Johnny Williams proved costly for Scarlets as the hosts scored all six of their tries after his dismissal.
Alivereti Raka and Anthony Belleau claimed two apiece with Giorgi Beria and Joris Jurand also cashing in. Belleau added four conversions to his haul, while Scarlets mustered replies through Steff Evans and Kieran Hardy.
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Who got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
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