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Gloucester explain why Wales hopeful Gareth Anscombe isn't kicking
By Liam Heagney
Sunday’s trip to Leicester has come too soon for Gareth Anscombe to retain his place in the Gloucester team following his early concussion in last weekend’s home derby loss to Bath. There were just 20 minutes gone at Kingsholm when he was forced off and the No10 jersey will now be worn by Charlie Atkinson at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
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The unavailability will clip the 33-year-old’s new-found momentum. Injured with Wales at Rugby World Cup 2023, he had his Japan League One contract with Tokyo Sungoliath torn up, leaving him without a place of work until George Skivington snapped him up for the Cherry and Whites.
Anscombe was named as the Gloucester 10 in their opening four matches of the Gallagher Premiership. However, while he arrived in the English league with a reputation for accumulating many points with his place kicking, an accuracy stretching back to his Super Rugby days with the Blues and Chiefs, the kicking tee has so far been kept away from him.
The 23-year-old George Barton has instead been preferred by Skivington and he hasn’t disappointed, scoring from 15 of his 18 attempts. It’s an 83 per cent success rate that has the youngster ranked fourth in the top-flight’s accuracy chart topped by Harlequins’ Marcus Smith, who is on 93 per cent.
Like Anscombe, Barton will now miss the weekend trip to Tigers and his spot at full-back has gone to Santiago Carreras. Asked why Anscombe hasn’t stepped up for kicking duty in 2024/25, Skivington explained: “George Barton is one of the best kickers in the league, and Santi has been very good as well.
“Gareth is good but the thing with Gareth is he has not played a lot of rugby for a number of years. The team here worked really hard at the back end of last season to get him fit and ready to play. He has played a good few games now, not as much as he would have liked against Bath unfortunately.
“But it is more like layering his game back in place rather than saying, ‘You’re back in, you’re doing all the kicking, you’re making all the plays’. It was more around, ‘We have got some really good goal-kickers. Don’t worry about that for a little bit and find your way back into rugby and we will see where we are off the back of that’.
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“It’s not ideal (he is missing this weekend) because he was in a really good vein of form, just starting to tick along. I feel like he was getting better every game for us… but he will get back in when he can.”
It was during kicking practice when Anscombe’s Rugby World Cup came to an end last year. Having impressed off the bench in the win over Australia, he was due to start the pool-closing match versus Georgia in Nantes. However, a groin injury during the warm-up left him distraught and he missed the remainder of the tournament.
At Gloucester, Anscombe is partnered at half-back with Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams and he is hoping of a Test squad recall when Warren Gatland unveils his pick for the three-game Autumn Nations Series which starts with the visit of Fiji on November 10.
“He is hungry to do it,” said Skivington regarding Anscombe’s international recall hopes. “Ultimately, Warren will have to look at it and go does he want to use Gareth’s experience or does he want to use one of the young lads coming through. I’m not 100 per cent sure on the depth of 10 at Wales good or bad, I actually don’t know.
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“Gareth was starting to feel his way back into the game and learning the Premiership and was starting to make some really good plays. It will be interesting to see what Warren’s thoughts are. Tomos has been unbelievable and the two of the working together, it is definitely going to help Gareth’s cause to get into that (Wales) squad.
“Again, I’m not sure Warren’s make-up of any of his half-backs to be honest. I haven’t paid enough attention to know who’s who but I presume Tommy is definitely in there and the synergy might help Gareth’s case if they were to go for experience.”
