Gloucester Rugby player ratings from Newcastle Falcons win - 'In British Lions form'

Gloucester Rugby secured a comfortable 36-7 home win over Newcastle Falcons on Saturday to climb the table.

The Cherry and Whites secured their sixth successive attacking bonus point of the campaign with tries from Jack Clement, Tomos Williams, Seb Blake, Jack Singleton, Christian Wade and Josh Hathaway, with Anscombe adding three of his four conversion attempts. Replacement Caolan Englefield missed both his shots at the sticks. Newcastle were largely toothless, and it took 68 minutes for them to trouble the scoreboard with Jamie Blamire taking an offload to touch down, with replacement fly-half Brett Connon knocking over the extras.

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South West rugby writer John Evely takes a closer look at the individual performances of the Gloucester Rugby players…

15. Josh Hathaway - 6

The full-back had a mixed game as he struggled under the high ball and was largely quiet in attack throughout the game, and yet he finished with a fine assist and a try. The Welsh international showed a calmness to grubber through a low daisy cutter of a kick on the angle into the path of Wade to scoop up and score, and then ran a nice wrap around line around the corner to take a pass from Zach Mercer to dot down himself in the closing stages. Mind you, Wade should have had at least one more try after Hathaway got white line fever and failed to exploit a two on one and went for the line himself, only to get held up.

14. Christian Wade - 7

The winger took his try well, just (probably) avoiding stepping into touch as he gathered a difficult low bouncing kick to score in the corner for his fourth try of the season. For a player of his quality that was bred and butter stuff, his real moment of magic came as a creative force as he turned something into nothing in attack, chipping into an empty back-field and then chasing to regather his own bouncing kick before drawing in the last defender with a clever double pump pass inside to Williams to score.

13. Max Llewellyn - 8

The Welsh international is in the form of his life and is crying out to be picked in the centres for Wales this Autumn. He thought he had got on the scoresheet again after taking a tap downed pass from Arthur Clark off a cross-field kick from Anscombe, but the try got scrubbed off for an earlier knock-on from Jamal Ford-Robinson. Even without the try he impressed, breaking the line against a seemingly set defence to make serious indents into Newcastle’s territory. If you are being harsh you would say he needs to be better linking up with support after making the breaks. TNT Sports’ official player of the match.

12. Charlie Atkinson - 7

Atkinson is proving to be a highly useful jack of all trades as he moves around the back line to good effect. So far this season he has played at full-back and fly-half before wearing 12 this weekend. His ability to be a second playmaker in the backline was valuable as he moved the ball nicely.

11. Ollie Thorley - 7

The England international was close to his marauding best as he repeatedly burst up the tram lines to make serious territory gains. He seems to have been given licence to go looking for gaps as he twice crabbed across the field with unorthodox runs, but one such diversion could have led to a try as he sucked all the Falcons defence to one side of the pitch which allowed Gloucester to switch the direction of attack and flood through, unfortunately a drop ball ended the opportunity.

10. Gareth Anscombe - 7

Kicking for the first time this season before heading off with Wales, the fly-half had an assured display. A lovely cross-field kick pass to Arthur Clark almost led to a try but an earlier error saw the fantastic piece of attacking play go to waste. The veteran managed to get on the wrong side of referee Ian Tempest as he was shown a yellow card for disrespectfully taking back to the official.

9. Tomos Williams - 8

The fly-half is an absolute magnet for the ball, either that or he is always in the right place. The ball repeatedly found him from either chaged down kicks or dropped passes and he quickly turned them into opportunities to attack. He crossed for yet another try after running a nice support line off Wade. If the British and Irish Lions were playing Australia next weekend, he would be my number nine.

1. Val Rapava-Ruskin - 7

The loosehead prop had a much better display as he dominated in the scrum and showed his prowess in the loose with a jackal turnover that should have led to a scoring chance only to see Anscombe over do his kick to the corner and send it dead. He looked shattered from the first few minutes of the game, but that is just how he plays the game.

2. Jack Singleton - 7

The hooker made one of the carries of his career as he found himself in space around halfway and backed his pace to go for the corner. Unfortunately he got dragged down just short of the line but it was one hell of a run. The England internaitonal did get his reward later in the match as he found himself on the wing and in position to take a pass from Mercer to score in the corner.

3. Afolabi Fasogbon - 7

The giant tighthead prop had another impressive outing in the scrum as he gave Gloucester the edge at the setpiece battle.

4. Arthur Clark - 7

The lock showed wonderful athleticism and composure to take a cross-field kick from Anscombe and pat down the ball to Llewellyn to set-uo a scoring change had Jamal Ford-Robinson not knocked the ball on before making a stunning 25m rumble down the middle of the pitch that had given the Cherry and Whites the momentum and field position to attack from.

5. Freddie Thomas - 7

Fresh from his first call-up into the Wales squad, Thomas was a key man in Gloucester’s almost flawless setpiece display with the scrum, lineout and maul dominant against the Falcons pack who normally manage to pack a punch in those areas.

6. Jack Clement - 7

The flanker opened the scoring for Gloucester with a powerful run down the left wing and was a good carrying option while on the pitch before going off with a head injury that saw him fail an HIA.

7. Lewis Ludlow - 8

The captain almost single handily resurrected the Gloucester line out as he shot up into the air to take the ball and then in defence he terrorised the visitors at the setpiece area, bouncing up to steal multiple balls. His sharpness in open play resulted in a turnover that directly led to Hathaway’s try. Playing with a point to prove having been benched early on in the season and very much making that point.

8. Zach Mercer - 7

The number eight finished the game with two lovely assists as he used his smooth handling ability to zip the ball out to first Singleton and then pulled a pass back to put Hathaway over the whitewash. There were also holes in the Falcons defence for him to exploit and he made a sensational run down the left wing in the second half to eat up the metres.

Replacements:

16. Seb Blake - 7

17. Jamal Ford-Robinson - 7

18. Ciaran Knight - 7

19. Matias Alemanno - 7

20. Harry Taylor - 7

21. Caolan Englefield - 6

22. Louis Hillman-Cooper - 6

23. Ioan Jones - N/A

Newcastle Falcons : 15. Alex Hearle, 14. Adam Radwan, 13. Connor Doherty, 12. Sammy Arnold, 11. Ben Stevenson, 10. Ethan Grayson, 9. Sam Stuart, 1. Adam Brocklebank, 2. Jamie Blamire, 3. Richard Palframan, 4. Pedro Rubiolo, 5. John Hawkins, 6. Philip van der Walt, 7. Tom Gordon, 8. Callum Chick (captain).

Replacements: 16. Ollie Fletcher, 17. Luan de Bruin, 18. Murray McCallum, 19. Sebastian de Chaves, 20. Freddie Lockwood, 21. Joe Davis, 22. Brett Connon, 23. Cameron Hutchinson.

Referee : Ian Tempest

Assistant Referees: Jack Makepeace and Greg Macdonald

TMO: Rowan Kitt