Gloucester director of rugby Dean Ryan admitted his side put in an improved performance in their 48-5 Heineken Cup victory over Calvisano.
Gloucester chief delighted with hard-fought win
Gloucester director of rugby Dean Ryan admitted his side put in an improved performance in their 48-5 Heineken Cup victory over Calvisano.
The win keeps the Guinness Premiership side within four points of leaders Cardiff at the top of Pool 6 after a six-try feast at Kingsholm.
"Our decision making was a step up from last week. We played significantly better and so did Calvisano," Ryan said seven days after a 40-17 victory in Italy.
"I knew that they would come and make it hard for us. They wouldn't turn up and just lie down and that's how it proved.
"I knew that we were making them work hard in the first half so we would get the dividends late on.
"They kicked a lot of ball back at us so we had lots of possession but they just sat back and let us make the mistakes. With a lot of ball you tend to make more errors."
Big impact
Man of the match Olly Morgan and Luke Narraway came in for particular praise from Ryan, who added: "He (Morgan) is playing very well, he is great under the high ball both in attack and defence. He needs a string of games but he ran a great line today for (Mark) Foster's try.
"(Narraway) is a big impact player for us and he is now adopting a greater leadership role with us.
"He has a very mobile game and will contribute significantly to England's cause. He was robbed by injury of figuring prominently in the autumn series."
As for Gloucester's chances of making further progress in the competition, Ryan said: "When we lost at Cardiff we had to make sure that we kept winning with bonus points.
"We've done that but Cardiff winning in Biarritz makes it harder for us.
"We wanted there to be something in the game when Cardiff come to us and that's what will happen, but really we have to win both our two remaining games to stand a chance of qualifying."
