Gloucester comeback too much for Bordeaux-Bègles
MATCH REPORT: Gloucester produced an extraordinary comeback to win 22-17 and stun a Bordeaux-Bègles side that had controlled the game for the first hour of Saturday's Champions Cup contest.
The hosts got off to a nightmare start, with a missed tackle leaving Sipili Falatea free to charge over for a try inside two minutes.
After Zack Holmes extended Bordeaux’s lead to 10 points with a simple penalty, Gloucester finally got themselves on the board, with a delightful offload from Santiago Socino sending Stephen Varney in under the posts.
The outstanding Tom Willis responded for Bordeaux, his effort deemed to have been grounded after a lengthy TMO check, meaning that the away side went into half-time 17-5 up.
Gloucester improved after the break with a few deft offloads and no-look passes leading to sporadic breaks.
But they were turned over and forced into errors too easily by a well-drilled, powerful Bordeaux side, and it looked as though the game was slipping away.
But Holmes dragged a penalty wide and missed the chance to extend Bordeaux’s lead beyond two converted tries, Gloucester then sensed hope of snatching a comeback victory.
And when Albert Tuisue celebrated his return from a ban by powering over to reduce the deficit, the home crowd found their voice and the momentum changed.
Another try from Socino reduced the deficit to 15-17, but the conversion was missed amid claims of an early charge on Santiago Carreras from the away side.
But it didn’t matter, as Charlie Chapman went in under the posts to complete the comeback, and Gloucester saw the game out, spurred on by a raucous Kingsholm crowd.
Gloucester faces the daunting task of a trip to the RDS Arena to take on last year’s beaten finalists Leinster Rugby next week.
Meanwhile, Bordeaux-Bègles will be looking to bounce back at home to a Cell C Sharks side that beat Harlequins in their opener.
The scorers
For Gloucester
Tries: Varney, Tuisue, Socino, Chapman
Con: Carreras
For Bordeaux-Bègles
Tries: Falateam Willis
Cons: Holmes 2
Pen: Holmes
Teams:
Gloucester: 15 Lloyd Evans, 14 Alex Hearle, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Jonny May, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Steve Varney, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Lewis Ludlow (captain), 6 Freddie Clarke, 5 Matías Alemanno, 4 Cameron Jordan, 3 Fraser Balmain, 2 Santiago Socino, 1 Val Rapava Ruskin.
Replacements: 16 Seb Blake, 17 Harry Elrington, 18 Ciaran Knight, 19 Albert Tuisue, 20 Jack Clement, 21 Charlie Chapman, 22 Billy Twelvetrees, 23 Jack Reeves.
Bordeaux-Begles: 15 Romain Buros, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Tani Vili, 12 Federico Mori, 11 Geoffrey Cros, 10 Zack Holmes, 9 Maxime Lucu, 8 Tom Willis, 7 Mahamadou Diaby (captain), 6 Renato Giammarioli, 5 Alban Roussel, 4 Kane Douglas, 3 Sipili Falatea, 2 Maxime Lamothe, 1 Lekso Kaulashvili.
Replacements: 16 Clement Maynadier, 17 Christopher Vaotoa, 18 Vadim Cobilas, 19 Cyril Cazeaux, 20 Caleb Timu, 21 Jules Gimbert, 22 Gatien Masse, 23 Louis Bielle-Biarrey.
Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistant referees: Mike English (Wales), Rhys Jones (Wales)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Source: @ChampionsCup