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'The boys shouldn't be disappointed as we did enough before that to win'
By PA
Gloucester head coach George Skivington felt his side fully deserved their 35-33 victory over Wasps but admits there was also a feeling of disappointment in the camp at the way they finished the game.
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Skivington had seen his team nearly throw away a 23-5 lead as Wasps, aided by a yellow card for Gloucester wing Jonny May, staged a remarkable late rally which almost proved successful
In fact, Wasps outscored their opponents by five tries to four with Jacob Umaga scoring twice in the closing stages after Gabriel Oghre, Alfie Barbeary and Thomas Young had crossed earlier on.
Billy Twelvetrees scored two tries for Gloucester with Jack Clement and May also on the scoresheet for the triumphant visitors – although they nearly saw victory snatched from their grasp in a dramatic final quarter.
Skivington said: “There was some real disappointment as we had a really poor last 15 minutes. A few players went for the big plays to seal victory and we didn’t need it.
“The boys shouldn’t be disappointed as we did enough before that to win the game, which we deserved to do.
“It’s five points on the road and moves us up the league table but that’s not my major concern. It’s more about the group growing by communicating with each other and trying to solve the problems that arise.
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“We were squeaky clean in the first half and I don’t think ill-discipline cost us, more a case of taking the wrong options in the final period and us being on the wrong side of the referee when there was a momentum shift in the game.
“We were also disappointed to concede two tries for line-out drives, the first one was well-worked but for the second one, our defence was poor. However we’ve only conceded two in that area all season so we’ve doubled the tally tonight.”
Wasps head coach Lee Blackett was critical of his side’s first-half performance and refused to use their extensive injury problems as an excuse for the result.
Ali Crossdale and Marcus Watson both withdrew from the starting line-up ahead of the game to take Wasps’ casualty list to 19. Matteo Minozzi and Francois Hougaard replaced them, with the South African scrum-half assuming an uncustomary role on the wing.
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Blackett said: “It was a disappointing night and a disappointing result. Two points we will take, but we didn’t want two points from this game, we wanted at least double that, if not five points. We’re going to go home and it is going to be a difficult weekend to reflect on that.
“I thought we were poor in the first half. We were very, very sloppy with the ball; I thought defensively we were too soft.”
He added: “It was a factor that we had to use players out of position but we won’t look for any excuses. Franny [Hougaard] went off injured but I thought he played really well on the wing.
“You’ve got to give credit to the way the boys fought back and we had an opportunity to win it but we lost all the collisions in the first half and it wasn’t until the final period that we were able to control possession.”
