Gloucester run stuns Exiles

Gloucester staged a dramatic second-half fightback to record a 23-21 victory over London Irish and go top of the Guinness Premiership.

Despite trailing 18-9 at the end of the first half, the West Country men rallied valiantly in the second period, largely thanks to the boot of Olly Barkley.

The Exiles completely dominated for long periods and the hosts, clearly missing star trio Olly Morgan, Mike Tindalll and Luke Narraway, looked like slumping to a fourth consecutive defeat.

But Barkley ensured his side never lost sight of their opponents and in the closing stages Iain Balshaw pounced to give Gloucester the win.

Early miss

On three minutes Barkley missed the opportunity to settle his side's nerves, drifting a long range penalty effort just wide.

Less than four minutes later however, Peter Hewat made no mistake at the other end, slotting an easy kick from in front of the posts to give the Exiles a 3-0 lead.

The opening try came when Rory Lawson was unfortunate to fumble a chip through from opposing number nine Rory Hodgson, as he went down inches short of his own line.

Despite some desperate defence from the hosts the ball came back out and Adam Thompstone nipped through to touch down. Hewatt added the extras to take the score to 10-0.

On 20 minutes London Irish shredded the Gloucester defence to open up a 15-point lead with their second coming courtesy of Topsy Ojo

Great passing from the backs saw the ball shifted out wide to Delon Armitage, who drew James Simpson-Daniel before offloading to winger Ojo, who flopped over in the corner.

Barkley notched up Gloucester's first points to take the score to 15-3 with a penalty and although Hewat stepped up to cancel out those three points, a second successful shot meant the Cherry and Whites were still alive - just.

With the seconds ticking down Gloucester now began to exert some pressure but a short period of sustained attacking play was unable to crack a solid Exiles' defence.

The penalty did come their way as the clock hit 41 minutes and Barkley closed the gap to nine points with an easy strike to take his side into the break trailing 18-9.

Gloucester suffered another injury setback 10 minutes after the restart when scrum-half Dave Lewis, who had replaced Lawson, was stretchered off.

They went close soon after though, following their first meaningful period of pressure and a blistering run from Simpson-Daniel.

Quick thinking from Hewat however caught Gloucester napping when, pressing for the try, they wrongly assumed he would kick clear from behind his own try line.

But the full-back instead launched a brilliant counter attack, reaching the halfway before kicking forward for the chasing Ojo.

The score did not come though as the covering Anthony Allen was sin-binned for deliberately killing play and the visitors had to settle for three easy points.

Erupted

The sure-footed Barkley was on hand again at the 56-minute mark to close the gap to 12-21 with a pinpoint kick in difficult conditions.

And, when presented with another chance from long distance after Chris Hala'ufia poleaxed Olivier Azam, he duly added three more to his and Gloucester's tally.

Just after the hour mark Allen returned from the sin-bin and London Irish's Seilala Mapusua headed off in the opposite direction for not moving away.

Barkley closed the gap to three points before Kingsholm erupted in the closing stages as Balshaw crossed for the hosts' first try that edged them into the lead for the first time in the game.

The ball was moved out quickly from the breakdown through Henry Trinder and Willie Walker for Balshaw to burst over.

Barkley failed to add the extras and also missed a late, late penalty, though his earlier efforts proved enough to help Gloucester take control at the summit.