This was already a decent sporting week for Cardiff even before Gareth Anscombe lined up the angled 79th-minute penalty which ultimately yielded only the second Welsh triumph in the 22-year history of the European Challenge Cup. With their footballers promoted to the Premier League and their rugby players victorious on a breathless Basque evening, the city’s long-suffering sports fans have not had it so good in years.
Even by Gloucester’s customary standards, however, this was a head-clutching outcome. Not many sides could lead a European final 20-6 at half-time and still blow it but, then again, few can match the Cherry and Whites for maddening inconsistency. As Anscombe stood over his all-important penalty, there was never any sense he was about to miss the target.
Anscombe was also involved in creating the opportunist try for Tomas Williams which launched the Blues’ remarkable fightback early in the second half but, ultimately, the game hinged on the Blues’ refusal to accept defeat in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. If they enjoyed some luck from the match officials, they gallantly overcame the early loss of their international flanker Josh Navidi with a dislocated shoulder and played a full part in one of the more entertaining finals anyone could ask for.
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Gloucester’s head coach, Johan Ackermann, however, was less than impressed by the pivotal decision to disallow a 30th-minute try for Lewis Ludlow for a supposed forward pass. Ackermann felt Josh Hohneck’s fine back-of-the-hand offload to a charging Ludlow was harshly pronounced forward by the French referee Jérôme Garcès and questioned why it was not referred to the television match official. “It still flabbergasts me sometimes that we’ve got the technology but we don’t want to use it,” said the South African.
The Blues, in contrast, were awarded a 54th-minute try by the replacement Garyn Smith which had more than a hint of offside about it and Gloucester, beaten finalists for the second year running, were also aggrieved by what they felt was a premature yellow card shown to Ludlow with seven minutes left and the score 30-23.
In truth, though, they paid the price for failing to kill off the Blues when they had the chance. Excellent first-half tries from Henry Trinder and Mark Atkinson, plus 15 points from an in-form Billy Twelvetrees, had initially threatened to win them the contest at a canter and, with both sides already qualified for next season’s Champions’ Cup, everything seemed set fair for the Cherry and Whites on a lovely still night in one of Europe’s more appealing stadiums.
The Blues did manage two first-quarter penalties from Jarrod Evans but were mostly kept penned in their own half for the opening 40 minutes. Gloucester’s forwards, led by the busy Ed Slater, appeared collectively livelier and Atkinson’s score would have graced any final. Clever play in the 13 channel by the alert Twelvetrees put Trinder away down the left and the supporting Callum Braley sent the onrushing centre under the sticks.
As it turned out the fun was only just starting. Williams’s try, helped by the rolling ball he was chasing ricocheting back off the goalpost padding launched the fightback and Evans’s clever grubber kick for Smith’s score further increased their momentum.
With Jarrod Evans also kicking his goals, the Blues were suddenly ahead 23-21 only for a well-organised Gloucester lineout drive to yield a relieving try for their Australian hooker, James Hanson. Twelvetrees’ conversion and third penalty appeared to have restored a further measure of calm only for Blaine Scully to finish spectacularly in the right corner and set the stage for Anscombe’s nerveless golden shot.