Rugby Union Round-up: Gloucester's third time lucky

WEATHER notwithstanding it was a bad day for ducks, broken on both sides of the Severn Bridge. Gloucester got off the Courage League One mark at the third attempt as a penalty try broke Rugby's spirited resistance in a 21-12 win at Kingsholm. Fifth time lucky for Newbridge, who beat Maesteg 20-13 in the Heineken First Division. Second Division Penarth beat Tredegar

5-3 to end a run of 19 defeats.

SWANSEA were superb in their 29-12 Heineken League victory over Neath, minimising errors by tackling and catching everything. Ruthless breaks brought tries for Simon Davies, Scott Gibbs and Aled Williams, and No 8 Stuart Davies cheekily went over almost unnoticed from a tapped penalty.

OFFENDERS against the law abounded. Pontypridd's Nigel Bezani and Bridgend's Jeff Jenkins sampled early showers in a tryless 12-12 draw while Pontypool's Vince Davies committed an early late tackle at Newport and left his team-mates to lose 20-9. The effectiveness of anything Richmond skipper Kevin Boroevich might have said to flanker Howard Lamb, whose 47th-minute dismissal was the turning point of a 22-16 loss at Bedford, was diminished by his own 78th-minute departure for practising his rhetoric on the referee. South Wales Police might have booked Cardiff's Olympic hurdler Nigel Walker for speeding if they'd been able to catch him - he crossed twice in a 65-8 stroll.