With an hour played, it looked as if Philippe Saint-Andre's first league match in charge, might be the second.However, it was not to be. Error strewn the game may have been, but it is the result which counts. If West do survive -and five of their remaining seven games are at home - Brewer should arrange the freedom of Hartlepool for Steve Vile. The little outside-half from Waratah, Australia, deserves nothing less after contributing 28 of West's 33 points with the opening try, which he converted, a dropped goal, and six penalties, in a low quality, though marvellously exciting, match, which Gloucester should have killed stone dead when Steve Ojomoh and Mark Mapletoft tries in the final quarter put them 32-27 ahead.But Gloucester have been something of a joke away from the comfort of Kingsholm, winning only once, at Richmond back in September. They took a decisive step towards that with a passionate performance against Gloucester at Victoria Park yesterday. MIKE BREWER, West Hartlepool's director of rugby, said before this game that his team needed no motivation.
If they are relegated at the end of the season, it will mean the end of professional rugby in the town, and none of his players will have a job. With a play-off place as their minimum objective, West know they must first displace Bedford at the bottom of the Premiership. I'm a non-starter for the rest of the championship."England's midfield triangle is the one area of real concern for Woodward as he pursues a Grand Slam that would send England into this autumn's World Cup in better than expected shape.Notwithstanding Grayson's setback, the most intractable problems surround Greenwood, who appears to be suffering from precisely the kind of deep- seated groin condition that once cost Jeremy Guscott an entire season of top-flight rugby.. "I had the injury scanned and the specialist gave me the bad news. It's a six- week job, for sure, which is bitterly disappointing. Woodward could set his personal time machine in fast forward by giving the No 10 shirt to Jonny Wilkinson, his ultimate solution to England's stand-off predicament, but the injuries to Greenwood and De Glanville are likely to cement the Newcastle teenager in his current position of inside centre. "I came back from the Five Nations match in Ireland thinking I'd picked up a groin strain, but when I tried to run after two or three days of intensive physiotherapy, there was nothing doing," said Grayson.
Grayson's withdrawal from the side to face France at Twickenham on Saturday almost certainly means a recall for the much-maligned Mike Catt, who demonstrated a keen sense of timing by bagging 20 points for Bath at Richmond at the weekend. The Northampton outside-half is suffering from a stress fracture of the pelvis and is unlikely play again before the middle of May. JUST WHEN Clive Woodward was in serious danger of naming an unchanged England side - a course he has taken only once during his 18 months as national coach - Paul Grayson has prompted a hasty reappraisal by limping on to a long-term casualty list already featuring the names of Will Greenwood, Phil de Glanville and Phil Vickery. If only they could have begun like that.Wasps: Tries Scrivener 2, Sampson, Weedon; Conversions Logan 3; Penalties Logan 4.
