Gloucester see off Biarritz

Gloucester kept alive their slim hopes of a Heineken Cup quarter-final berth with a 23-8 victory over Pool 2 winners Biarritz.

The French team cannot be caught but Gloucester have kept themselves in the best runner-up contest, with places in the Amlin Challenge Cup also up for grabs.

Biarritz were without a number of key men due to injury but will be disappointed not to come away with at least a bonus point as they pursue a home quarter-final.

Gloucester dominated from the off and led 13-3 at the break. Biarritz hardly made an inroad into the home 22 and their only points came from a long-range penalty from fly-half Valentin Courrent.

Gloucester's pack out-muscled the Frenchmen and only a few wrong options denied them an even bigger lead at the interval.

Centre Tim Molenaar dropped a pass from ex-England wing Lesley Vainikolo within five metres of the line early on before fly-half Nicky Robinson landed the first of his two penalties during the period.

Biarritz's line was finally breached on 20 minutes when loose-head prop Alasdair Dickinson raced away from an attacking ruck near the 22 metre line and found Vainikolo on hand to take the scoring pass.

Robinson landed the conversion and popped over an easy 20 metre penalty when Biarritz illegally slowed a ruck down, to give the English side the platform to work from in the remaining 40 minutes.

Initiative

Biarritz provided a few moments resistance after the break but the initiative soon swung back towards the home side.

However, needing another three tries for a bonus point, captain Gareth Delve opted for Robinson's kicking instead.

And bizarrely, just before the hour and with Biarritz on the rack when former England back row Luke Narraway knocked-on as the ball squirted out of a defending scrum five, Robinson was handed the ball and, subsequently, sent an easy kick wide of the posts.

But another charging run from centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu set-up Vainikolo to feed Molenaar for a second try which secured the victory.

Biarritz rallied towards the end and number eight Imanol Harinordoquy grabbed a pick-up and go try from a ruck near the home posts, but it was just a consolation.