Rugby Union: Eriksson ends tension

London Scottish. . . .8

Gloucester. . . . . . 3

SAVOURING their first points in National League One became almost incidental for London Scottish after what, under normal circumstances, would have been a notable defeat of Gloucester.

Instead the talk was not just of the new laws, but the new game they had created. Perhaps because there was added tension of a debut nature in the Scottish approach and lingering nostalgia for a raw forward nature in the Gloucester approach, the game rarely sparked into life.

New sensitivity also led to a lot of 'off the record' criticism of the English panel referee Stuart Piercy, particularly at the lineout, which went more the way of Gloucester. Avoiding anything too pointedly personal, the Scottish coach Alistair McHarg said afterwards referees should take a spirit level to the scrum to make sure that props' shoulders were not below their hips 'because it's obvious their eyesight fails them when it comes to parallel lines'.

The more the conversations went on, the more negative they became. 'How can you expect any backs to start a major attack from anywhere behind the opposition 10-metre line,' a Scottish club official asked. 'The defences at this level are likely to be tight and you only have one chance before risking being stopped in possesson.'

That may have been some excuse for what McHarg described as 'aerial ping-pong' as both stand-offs hoisted kick after kick, Cramb statically, Tim Smith ineffectually. It meant that the lion's share of possession won by Gloucester came to nothing and the one piece of straight, hard running by Ronnie Eriksson produced what was the game-winning try.

The Gloucester pack then had what the laws are partly designed to stop, the chance of camping on the Scottish line for a while, but, in contrast to early discomfort for the hooker Logan Mair, his pack by then could cope and then some.

An hour-long post-match debate in the centre of the pitch involving the fitness coaches Alan Wells and his wife Margot, retained to bring sprint and polish, and McHarg, gave rise to some jovial speculation about renegotiating win bonuses. They were not.

More likely was urgent consideration of how creativity can be added to beat both other sides equally as fit and laws which circumscribe a running and handling game, in which league success requires the minimum of mistakes.

London Scottish: Try Eriksson. Penalty Appleson. Gloucester: Penalty T Smith.

London Scottish: M Appleson; N Grecian, M Sly, R Eriksson, L Renwick; R Cramb (capt), D Millard; D Denham, L Mair, P Burnell, R Scott, D Cronin, N Provan, D White, I Morrison.

Gloucester: M Roberts; D Morgan, S Morris, D Caskie, J Perrins; T Smith, M Hannaford; P Jones, J Hawker, R Phillips, D Sims, R West, A Knox, R Fowke, I Smith (capt).

Referee: S Piercy (RFU).