Johan Ackermann proud of Gloucester effort in defeat

Adam Kyriacou

Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann applauded his team’s commitment despite going down to an opening Champions Cup pool loss to Toulouse.

Two brilliant first-half tries from Joe Simpson had given Gloucester a 20-9 interval lead but after that the hosts had no answer to the power of the French pack, who racked up 16 unanswered points after the turnaround for a deserved 25-20 victory.

Danny Cipriani converted both of Simpson’s tries and kicked two penalties to complete the scoring for the Cherry and Whites.

Sebastian Bezy scored a try for Toulouse. Thomas Ramos converted that and kicked four penalties with Romain Ntamack kicking another penalty and Zack Holmes adding a drop-goal.

Ackermann said: “We defended well in the first quarter and Joe’s two great finishes gave the boys a good lift.

“We missed a couple of chances to score just before half-time but after that our line-out was horrendous and they had over 70 per cent in terms of territory and possession.

“We therefore had no platform to attack from and it was summed up when we lost another line-out in the corner two minutes from the end when we had a great opportunity to score.

“I’m very proud of the boys’ effort but I’m disappointed that we gave them some easy points in the second half.”

Next up for Gloucester in Pool Five is a trip to Montpellier, which Ackermann accepts will be a tough one to win.

He continued: “We will reassess where we are and possibly freshen a few things up. It’s a massive challenge for us as only we can fix our problems.

“Montpellier have big players in their line-up and are a quality side and they are going to be very physical.”

Two-try hero Simpson did not deserve to be on the losing side as he ran 55 metres for his first and 80 for his second, temporarily putting the French team on the back foot.

The scrum-half said: “I just pinned my ears back and ran as quickly as I could, it wasn’t too difficult as I didn’t have to beat anyone.

“It was a good off-load from Banners (Matt Banahan) to set up the first and for the second it was a great rip from Lewis Ludlow to take possession away from them.

“We were in a great position at half-time but they made a couple of crucial changes which stung our line-out and they got us into an arm-wrestle, which we desperately wanted to avoid.”

Champions Cup