Gloucester Suffers Significant Defeat Against Vannes

A Gloucester team, featuring many changes, experienced a substantial loss to Racing Club Vannes in the European Rugby Challenge Cup, held in north-west France. Chris Harris, serving as captain for the match, scored Gloucester’s initial try during what proved to be a disappointing evening for the team. European Rugby Challenge Cup RC Vannes (19) 43 Tries: Benmegal 2, Ruru 2, Chateau, Blanchard Cons: Lafage 5 Pens: Lafage Gloucester (7) 19 Tries: Harris, Blackmore, Morris Cons: Barton, R. Taylor Enzo Benmegal and Michael Ruru each contributed two tries, playing a key role in securing the hosts’ first European victory of the current campaign. This dominant performance took place at a full Stade de la Rabine. Additional tries by Karl Chateau and Cyril Blanchard ensured a well-earned bonus-point win for the home side. Gloucester’s tries were scored by Chris Harris, Gareth Blackmore, and Jake Morris. However, the team failed to capitalize on the chance to ascend to the top of Pool 3, despite having secured a victory against Edinburgh in their initial group fixture on Saturday. Gloucester commenced the game with only two players from the previous Saturday’s starting lineup. The team endured an extremely poor start as Vannes’ Romaric Camou broke free and passed to fellow winger Benmegal, who scored with a flamboyant dive within the opening 50 seconds. Before the Cherry and Whites could regroup, hooker Theo Beziat pushed through several weak tackles, advancing towards the try line again. Beziat then offloaded the ball to New Zealand scrum-half Ruru, who scored with a one-handed dive, extending the hosts’ lead to 14 points in under four minutes of play. Nevertheless, the visiting team responded immediately. George Barton identified an opening, enabling Harris, the captain for the evening, to narrow the score difference. Just four minutes later, Ruru re-established the hosts’ two-score lead. He capitalized on a loose ball after a successful line-out, diving over from a yard out. Gloucester struggled to assert themselves until later in the first half. When Barton attempted to navigate a narrow gap, Beziat received a 10-minute sin-binning for foul play. Despite the numerical advantage, Gloucester could not convert it into points. A disjointed conclusion to the half meant Vannes entered halftime with a 12-point lead. Seven minutes into the second half, excellent play moving from right to left enabled Benmegal to secure his second try in the corner, effectively putting Vannes beyond reach. Commendably, Gloucester maintained their resolve. After a winding run by Reeves, scrum-half Charlie Chapman passed to substitute Blackmore, who was alongside him, allowing Blackmore to find a gap and score under the posts. Vannes briefly faltered. Following an impressive dummy by Will Butler, the centre’s pass set up Jake Morris for a straightforward try in the right-hand corner, narrowing the deficit to seven points. The French team retaliated as Chateau powered over from a driving maul. Subsequently, Gloucester’s Freddie Clarke was sin-binned for the remainder of the match due to an infringement of coming in from the side. Seconds later, Blanchard scored Vannes’ sixth try, a near identical repeat of their fifth. Vannes, setting aside their recent poor domestic form, delivered a crushing defeat to their less experienced adversaries. Gloucester head coach George Skivington shared his thoughts with BBC Radio Gloucestershire, stating: “I thought we deserved a bonus point out of that, we had a very young team and their character was outstanding. “I am very pleased with what I saw from some of these players, and that was the challenge at the beginning of the game – we came to a fully-loaded Vannes and knew it was a massive day for them as a city.”I was about as bad a start as you can get, we weren’t accurate with our kick-off, we missed a tackle and they run the length. You don’t want that happening in the first five minutes of any game.”At the end, there were some really tough (refereeing) calls going against us, but sometimes that happens in Europe. The interpretation is definitely different to what we’re used to.” The lineup for RC Vannes included: Surano; Benmegal, Taccola, Vili, Camou; Lafage, Ruru; M. Vunipola, Beziat, Bourgeois; Bresler, Mezou, Chateau, Gorrissen, Kalamafoni. Replacements were: Blanchard, Berguet, Medrano, Marks, Metz, Augry, Le Bail, Ayarza. Beziat received a sin-bin at 26 minutes. Gloucester’s team comprised: Jones; Morris, Harris, Butler, Reeves; Barton, Chapman; Vivas, Nelson, Gotovtsev; Clarke, Gordan, Eite, H. Taylor, Tuisue. Substitutes were: Blackmore, McArthur, Petch, Gwynne, James, Englefield, R. Taylor, Cotgreave. Clarke was sin-binned at 71 minutes. The match referee was Saba Abulashvili from Georgia.