Gloucester Rugby column by ex-England star Alastair Hignell (From Gazette Series)

Gloucester Rugby column by ex-England star Alastair Hignell

10:21am Thursday 26th January 2012 in Gloucestershire Sport

I WISH I never saw the sunshine, sang folktronic chanteuse Beth Orton in a 1996 cover of a Ronettes hit from the 60s.

Then I wouldn’t mind the rain, she explained in one of the most poignant songs I have ever heard. She’s obviously not a rugby fan. Most emphatically, given she was born in Norfolk and spends most of her time in London, she is not a Gloucester supporter.

Last Friday night at Kingsholm it would have been impossible to detect even the slightest scintilla of the melancholia so achingly articulated by Orton. Even this week, as the memory of Gloucester’s extraordinary demolition of Toulouse dims ever so slightly, it would be easier to find a sewing implement in the proverbial haystack than come across anyone willing to enter the realms of what might have been.

And why not? Gloucester were magnificent in their defeat of the most successful club side in the history of the game. There was nothing flukey about their victory over the team that has won the French championship countless times, currently tops the French league and whose four victories in the Heineken Cup are twice as many as any of its nearest rivals. Gloucester quite simply out-played the Frenchmen.

Coaches Bryan Redpath and Carl Hogg made the bold decision to take on Toulouse at their point of strength - a colossally powerful set-piece - and it paid off. They picked a side to match the footballing ability of the perennially dangerous Frenchmen and were rewarded by performances from the likes of Akapusi Qera, Luke Narraway and Rory Lawson that combined perpetual motion with real intelligence.

They looked at the stellar quality of the Toulouse replacements’ bench and backed their own youngsters to make a difference. More importantly, they trusted their own match-winners to come up with something that a side which had seen it all and done it all had never experienced.

Quite simply, Toulouse had no answer to the pace Gloucester injected into the proceedings. If full-back Jonny May grabbed the headlines with his stunning second try, wings James Simpson-Daniel and Charlie Sharples were every bit as turbo-charged. Kingsholm was left gasping with delight. Toulouse were left gasping for air.

But Toulouse are through to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals and Gloucester haven’t even got the consolation prize of a passage into the Amlin Cup. What’s more, the Cherry and Whites are in the wrong half of the Aviva Premiership and at present unlikely to qualify for next year’s premier European competition.

This weekend’s LV=Cup fixture against Cardiff Blues – who by contrast have reached this year’s quarter-finals – was always likely to have an “after the Lord Mayor’s Show”feel to it. In the light of what happened last time Gloucester ran out at Kingsholm, it might feel even more surreal.

But Gloucester fans have glimpsed the sunshine and they know there’s no substitute for the warm feeling it gives. More importantly, Gloucester players have discovered not just how to turn the heat up but how to thrive in it.

They know that, especially as winter bites, other teams will be more determined to apply a cold compress to their attacking ambitions but they can now really believe what their coaches have been telling them for months; when they get it right, Gloucester can beat anyone.

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