Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath has praised his side¿s resilience after they beat Harlequins to reach the LV= Cup semi-finals.
Gloucester coach says much-changed side showed commitment
Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath has praised his side's resilience in the face of international call-ups after they secured their place in the LV= Cup semi-finals with a last-gasp 31-29 away win at Harlequins.
Tim Taylor converted Tom Voyce's late try with the very last kick of the game as the Cherry and Whites came from behind to take the victory and edge out Welsh side Scarlets at the top of Pool Two.
Fly-half Taylor, who is currently on loan from Championship side Nottingham, kept his cool to secure the bonus point victory after his side had trailed 20-0 after 25 minutes.
"I thought he was outstanding," said Redpath. "He's been here two weeks training and did a lot of good things today."
Taylor and James Simpson-Daniel both scored first-half tries to starting pulling Gloucester back before the latter scored again to put them right in the hunt.
Centre Tim Molenaar and full-back Voyce then touched down in a dramatic last five minutes.
Both sides were depleted by international calls and Redpath admitted: "It showed. Defensively we were pretty poor in that first 25 minutes.
"We had a boy (hooker Darren Dawidiuk) in the bin and they capitalised on that.
"We had made a few changes and it looked like that early on but we steadied the ship and got two tries back before half-time.
"We came back and showed great resilience and commitment to win the game and give ourselves a bit of credit back."
Gloucester have struggled in the Guinness Premiership so far this season but Redpath added: "There's a great team spirit.
"A lot of external people have questioned it but I've said all along we will get better and I believe we will - and have.
"But there's still so far to go because we've found ourselves in a situation which required a lot of soul-searching and honesty amongst us all."
Iron grip
The result left former All Blacks fly-half Nick Evans on the losing side despite his personal tally of 24 points, including two excellent first-half tries.
Quins head coach John Kingston, whose side needed an 11-try win to overhaul Pool Three leaders Cardiff Blues, said: "We lost the iron grip we had on the game just before half-time with the two soft tries.
"It's desperately disappointing to lose a match we had dominated in most aspects for most of the game.
"There's very little consolation in the fact that outcome-wise it was fairly meaningless to us."
The two sides meet again at Kingsholm on Saturday in the Guinness Premiership, which now stands as Quins' only route to qualification for next season's Heineken Cup.
Kingston hopes to welcome back winger David Strettle and flanker Chris Robshaw from England Saxons as well as captain Will Skinner and Argentina centre Gonzalo Tiesi from injury and illness respectively.
He added: "We have some massive games coming up. It's about how we learn the lessons and nail the game down next Saturday."
