Freddie Clarke’s ‘big man try’ helps Gloucester into Challenge Cup final after beating Benetton
Freddie Clarke produced another memorable European try when he intercepted Albornoz’s pass – PA/Joe Giddens
Gloucester 40 Benetton 23
Gloucester stormed past Benetton into the final of the Challenge Cup thanks to the verve of Zach Mercer, the control of their half backs and a lung-busting intercept try from second row Freddie Clarke.
Being a couple of pasties short of 18 stone, a steward’s inquiry will now begin as to whether it officially qualifies as a ‘big man try’. What was not in doubt was Clarke’s anticipation and skill to pluck Tomas Albornoz’s floated pass out of the air. With 50 metres to go, Clarke needed to furiously pump his legs to outpace the cover before capping the score with a gloriously inelegant swan dive. The Shed lapped it up.
“I saw an opportunity to fly out and luckily it got into my hands,” Clarke said. “I was looking over my shoulder left and right but no one was near me. Don’t ask me about the dive, I didn’t really leave the floor. I scored a load of those in my garden growing up.”
At 32-16, that score took what had been a closely fought game out of Treviso’s reach to provide a large measure of vindication for director of rugby George Skivington’s decision to rotate his squad for the past two Premiership matches. Skivington copped plenty of stick for that decision, which resulted in heavy defeats to Saracens and Exeter, but having won the Premiership Rugby Cup earlier in the season Gloucester are now on course for a second tier double. They will travel to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 24 to face the Sharks, who have a fixture in South Africa six days previously.
“At the start of the season, there are three trophies that you can go after and the reality is going after all three is tough if not impossible,” Skivington said. “Being brave earlier in the year we decided to go after the cups. For the club has not had loads of silverware over the years and we want to bring silverware to Gloucester. From our point of view it would be massive. I am very proud of this group for dogging it out and sticking in plan through thick and think to put ourselves in a position.
“From my point of view if you get halfway through the year and one trophy is pretty much gone then you are going to go for the other ones. We have got a bit of stick but that doesn’t mean we have dismissed the Prem but there have been ulterior motives to how we have played and picked people. That comes with being brave.”
Mercer picked up yet another man of the match award with his quick feet and octopus like ability to get a hand free to offload out of a tackle. In Gloucester’s best move of the match – the Clarke try from the end of the world aside – Mercer twice changed the point of attack with offloads that eventually resulted in fly half Adam Hastings scoring in the corner. Hastings finished with 17 points with the boot while the high hanging box kicks of Caolan Englefield were also a key factor in the victory.
England outcast Zach Mercer (centre) was awarded player of the match after an impressive performance, despite being yellow carded – Getty Images/Bob Bradford
The loud bangs emanating from the Treviso coaching box, indicated the frustration they felt in letting the game slip from their grasp. Their scrum was dominant in the first half and Gloucester looked to be on the ropes when replacement hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi was driven over from the maul on 54 minutes. A conversion would have brought Treviso level, instead tries from Hastings and Clarke in the space of two minutes on the hour mark gave Gloucester breathing space.
Too often Benetton were their own worst enemies. In the first half, Lewis Ludlow won a turnover in their 22 which resulted in the in-form Josh Hathaway scoring from Chris Harris’ grubber kick. Tomas Albornoz kicked two penalties, both from Gloucester scrum offences, to one from Hastings, who also kicked a sublime 50-22. From that field position, hooker Seb Blake rumbled over from a try to take Gloucester 15-6 up.
Yet Gloucester finished the first half on the back foot when Mercer was somewhat harshly sinbinned for a trip and with the clock gone red full back Rhyno Smith scored from a flowing Benetton move in which the outstanding No 8 Toa Halafihi was heavily involved. Benetton were fully in the ascendancy at the start of the second but a few moments of indecision cost them dearly.
Lucchesi scored a second try in near identical fashion from a maul but Ollie Thorley ensured they had the last word after the wing nipped in front of Hastings to ground a kick ahead. The Kingsholm celebrations were raucous. When your fanbase is as success starved as Gloucester’s then there is no such thing as second-tier silverware.
Match details
Gloucester: J Hathaway; J May, C Harris, S Atkinson, O Thorley (A Hearle, 79); A Hastings (C Atkinson, 79), C Englefield (S Varney, 70); M Vivas (J Ford-Robinson, 45), S Blake (S Socino, 45), K Gotovtsev (C Knight, 63), F Clarke, F Thomas (A Tuisue, 62), R Ackermann (J Clement, 68), L Ludlow (c), Z Mercer.
Benetton: R Smith; I Mendy, T Menoncello, N Brex, O Ratave; T Albornoz (L Marin, 68), A Garbisi (A Uren, 49); T Gallo (M Spagnolo, 60), G Nicotera (G Lucchesi 45), S Ferrari (G Zilocchi, 52), S Scrafton (N Cannone 41), E Snyman (E Iachzzi, 60), S Negri (A Izekor, 49), M Lamaro, T Halafihi.
Attendance: 11,426
Referee: N Amashukeli (Georgia)
Scoring sequence: 5-0, Hathaway try; 5-3 Albornoz pen; 8-3 Hastings pen; 8-6 Albornoz pen; 13-6, Blake try; 15-6 Hastings con; 15-11, Smith try; 18-11, Hastings pen; 18-16, Lucchesi try; 23-16, Hastings try; 25-16, Hastings con; 30-16 Clarke try; 32-16, Hastings con; 32-21, Lucchesi try; 32-23, Albornoz con; 35-23, Englefield pen; 40-23 Thorley try
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