Guinness Premiership Reaction
Tindall to miss Falcons clash
Scrum.com
March 27, 2010
Bloodied, but unbowed Gloucester's Nicky Robinson scored all of his side's points against Leeds at Kingsholm, Gloucester, England, March 27, 2010
Nicky Robinson scored all of Gloucester's points as they won despite their injury woes © Getty Images
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Gloucester are likely to be without England centre Mike Tindall for their midweek trip to Newcastle after he tweaked his groin and had to be replaced six minutes into his side's win 19-0 over Leeds.

Coach Bryan Redpath confirmed the influential 2003 World Cup winner's injury was unrelated to the hamstring trouble that has limited his appearances this season, and the former Scottish scrum-half lamented the player's injury woes. And he may also have to plan without his captain after Wales' backrow Gareth Delve was forced off with an ankle injury.

"He tweaked his groin in the first play of the game," Redpath said. "It is unrelated to his hamstring injury. He just doesn't seem to have any luck with Gloucester. He played 55 to 60 minutes last week without a problem but it is just one of those things.

"He (Delve) got a pinch in his ankle which is an impingement of the joint. You cannot tell straight away, you have to wait 72 hours, really, but he does not come off lightly so it must be reasonable enough to rule him out for Wednesday, I would guess."

Otherwise the Scot was pleased with his side's efforts, saying, "It was a decent win and four points against a side which has not lost in five games. It was a scrappy game but it was good to get the points.

"They have been pretty dogged and we knew that would be the case so we had to work to win the game. Nicky (Robinson) kicked fairly well today and his try was good vision to take the chance. He worked well too."

Defeated coach Neil Back lamented his side's inability to convert their possession into points, while he also expressed confusion at some of referee Rob Debney's decisions.

"We created a lot of chances but we have to support our line-breaks better," he said. "The fact that we are creating them is positive but we didn't take those opportunities and, ultimately, that is where we were. We have played top Premiership clubs in the last four games - Leicester, Saracens, Sale and Wasps - and we have been dominant in the scrum.

"We have been heavily penalised in that area today so I was a bit confused. We have a 15 to 30 second delay (on their coaching laptop computers in the stand) so we can watch it. And the fact that the penalty was 15-2 until the last 15 minutes meant again I was confused with a lot of those decisions but, as normal, we will go through the process of requesting that Tony Spreadbury (the match referee assessor) goes through the game and, hopefully, he can give some answers."

Leeds' rivals Worcester went down to league leaders Leicester and director of rugby Mike Ruddock lamented his side's indiscipline against the clinical Tigers.

"I felt the final scoreline hurt us, but Leicester were more clinical - they had three try-scoring chances and took them," Ruddock said. "They capitalised on our ill-discipline. For 60 minutes, there was nothing really in it and I thought we played all the rugby in the first half. We really forced Leicester to ask a lot of themselves and we felt confident at half-time, but they turned the screw in the end and punished us.

"They put a lot of pressure on our lineout, which hurt us, and we also came up against our usual stumbling block of giving away too many penalties. We put pressure on ourselves with the amount of penalties we gave away. But there is plenty of heart and spirit in the team, and we have got to dust ourselves down for Friday night."

Bath coach Steve Meehan has backed Olly Barkley for an England return this summer after his display at the Rec.

Barkley scored 14 of his side's points in a 24-13 win over Harlequins and Meehan believes he is on course to return to the international set up. "He's not in his prime yet and before the end of the season we'll start to see that," he said. "I think he has a real chance, a very strong chance of making that trip."

"He has a very accurate long pass, Olly, and good speed so he can get outside defenders and release outside attackers quite nicely. It was illustrated perfectly by Joe Maddock's try. That's just a brilliant bit of rugby. If anybody scores a better try than that this weekend, it will have to be an absolute screamer."

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