Gloucester 22-36 Sharks TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM — You had to feel a smidgen of sympathy for Gloucester as they were on the end of a shellacking from the Sharks of South Africa in Friday’s EPCR Challenge Cup final at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Lewis Ludlow’s likeable but scatty team of promising youngsters and veteran triers finished ninth in the Premiership , but they faithfully fulfilled the brief of the second-tier European competition by conquering an eclectic bunch comprising Black Lion of Georgia, Clermont Auvergne, Edinburgh, Castres twice, Ospreys and Benetton Treviso to pull within range of a welcome trophy and a side-door entry into the Champions Cup. And then they found their duty at the last knockings was to give a leg up to muscled-up interlopers from the other side of the equator, as Sharks brought half a World Cup-winning pack and a handful of other Springboks, plus less well known performers like the impressive 27-year-old fly-half Siya Masuku.
That was how Gloucester’s dream died – to be replaced by a fresh consideration of what European club rugby should be all about. A beautiful red moon just past its full stage was rising on the horizon in North London as Bongi Mbonambi – the hooker who is not exactly English rugby’s favourite overseas player after events involving Tom Curry at last October’s World Cup – leapt the advertising boards to celebrate with hundreds of Sharks supporters behind the posts after the final whistle. Read Next On.
