Mercier breathes life into the fight

Perpignan 31 Gloucester 23

Gloucester knew it was going to be hard but, in these parts, forewarned is not necessarily forearmed. Home advantage is, of course, priceless and in the context of what took place here the Cherry and Whites did remarkably well to escape by the margin of just three tries to two.

Gloucester, who defeated Perpignan 33-16 at Kingsholm last week, were in danger of being buried alive but, trailing 31-9 midway through the second half, they got the break they needed. As an exercise in damage limitation, it was all they could have hoped for.

For most of the match they needed a telescope to identify the distant Perpignan try line but they managed two touchdowns in the last seven minutes, scores that could prove invaluable if and when the calculators are required to determine the piranhas in pool two.

Dean Ryan, Gloucester's forwards coach, had said: "Our biggest challenge is in the scrum and the ferocity of Perpignan's ball-carrying.'' Nowhere is it more ferocious than in the south of France.

With a front row that looked like something from the belltower of Nôtre Dame, Perpignan duly took Gloucester on up front, and indeed almost everywhere else, to secure a win that keeps alive their interest in the Heineken Cup. However, the crowd here wanted all the trimmings to go with the two points for a win and the fact that they were denied that at the death was loudly demonstrated when they booed the referee, David McHugh, off the pitch.

The Irishman was the target of their abuse for most of the afternoon, but particularly after he had issued the centre Pascal Giordani with a yellow card in the 73rd minute. For once, Gloucester had mounted a serious attack with strong incursions from Andy Gomarsall and James Forrester and, when they were awarded a penalty inside the Perpignan 22, Giordani was sent to the sin-bin for not retreating the obligatory 10 metres. Gloucester immediately took advantage, driving from the line-out and Jake Boer was credited with the touchdown.

In injury time they received another bonus when Forrester, who had replaced the anonymous Peter Buxton, drove play to within a few feet of the Perpignan line with a chip and chase and, when the ball was recycled, Gomarsall linked with Tom Beim who sent Ludovic Mercier through a gap to score a simple try. Mercier added both conversions to complement his three penalties.

Gloucester, the Zurich Championship leaders who had travelled here with a 100 per cent record in Europe, will be counting their lucky stars that they ended up a mere eight points adrift. For most of a largely one-sided contest they did not look as if they had a Catalan in hell's chance of emerging with anything other than a comprehensive French lesson.

Gomarsall had his knuckles rapped after only four minutes when he tried to be too clever in defence and, after putting his side in trouble, Manuel Edmonds opened the scoring with a penalty.

Ten minutes later the Australian stand-off breached the Gloucester midfield to get over at the posts despite the attention of Robert Todd and Boer. Edmonds added two penalties and, on the stroke of half-time, converted his side's second try, a score which underlined the pressure the Gloucester forwards were subjected to. The West Country side were powerless to stop a series of rolling mauls at the end of which Nicolas Mas crashed over.

Trailing 23-6 at half-time, Gloucester's only contribution had been two long-range penalties from the Frenchman Mercier and, had the game contained any continuity, they would surely have been put to the sword. Their back row, missing Andy Hazell, were always on the back foot against a far more inventive unit in Phil Murphy, Lionel Mallier and Gregory Le Corvec. Perpignan increased their lead after 47 minutes when a clever chip from Edmonds found the Gloucester defence in some disarray and Giordani beat Thinus Delport to the touchdown.

The introduction of Forrester gave Gloucester some much needed pace in the back row and they also felt the need to shore up their defence, replacing the full-back, Henry Paul, with Chris Catling. Gomarsall was fortunate to avoid a yellow card after tripping up the wing Frederic Cermeno, who was following up his own kick ahead. Gomarsall's trip was the act of a frustrated player and his punishment was a penalty, which Edmonds kicked to give his side a 22-point lead after 59 minutes.

Perpignan, however, failed to ram home their advantage and even Edmonds, who had not put a foot wrong, lost his touch. He failed with a relatively easy conversion of Giordani's try and was also off target with a penalty.

It was just the encouragement Gloucester needed to at least make their presence felt and, when Perpignan were reduced to 14 men, the West Country club exploited their numerical superiority. It was the only time they had been superior in any department. Perpignan also paid a price for making a raft of substitutions, unnecessarily disrupting the work of a pack that was in glorious hunting mode.

The key to this group will be Gloucester's game against Munster at their Limerick stronghold – and they have already comprehensively defeated the Irish province at Kingsholm – and Munster's game here in Perpignan.

Perpignan: J-M Souverbie; P Bomati, P Giordani, C Manas, F Cermeno; M Edmonds, L Loustau (J Basset, 68); R Peillard, M Konieckiewicz (capt; F Rofes, 57), N Mas (S de Besombes, 57), J Thion, R Alvarez Kairelis (C Porcu, 62), G Le Corvec, P Murphy (N Coutet, 74), L Mallier (S Doroeux, 68).

Gloucester: H Paul (C Catling, 69); M Garvey (T Beim, 74), T Fanolua, R Todd, T Delport; L Mercier, A Gomarsall; R Roncero, O Azam, P Vickery (capt), A Eustace, M Cornwell, J Boer, J Paramore, P Buxton (J Forrester, 65).

Referee: D McHugh (Ireland).