Redpath pleased with character

Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath cut a delighted figure after watching his side beat Saracens 19-13 to move up to third in the table.

Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath cut a delighted figure after watching his side beat Saracens 19-13 at Kingsholm to move up to third in the Aviva Premiership. A physical and at times volatile contest saw three players sent to the sin-bin, Gloucester duo Alex Brown and Nick Wood and Saracens lock Hugh Vyvyan, while visiting centre Kameli Ratuvou sustained a nasty knee injury when flying into home wing Charlie Sharples as the Gloucester scored his side's only try of the match. Home fly-half Nicky Robinson also kicked four penalties and Redpath was pleased with the character shown by his side. "Both sides played very well and they starved us of possession at the start," stated the Scot. "We were dull and gave away three dull penalties and you can't do that against good sides. Saracens punished us for that. "We were 10-3 down but the players' resilience to come back from that and win the game; I was delighted with that. "Our discipline, though, was letting us down and that is something I will address on Monday because we can't be like that. I can understand penalties on our own line when we are under pressure, but I can't accept dull ones. I'm pretty angry about that. "We didn't have any territory at times and the key thing was not to cut our own throats to find territory. It was going to be a game of chess. "Credit to Sarries. In the first 25 minutes, they were good and we weren't but, on a whole, when we attacked, we looked pretty dangerous." Redpath also had some words of wisdom for Sharples, who tried to "showboat" with a dive instead of putting the ball on the ground for his try. "He doesn't need to be shown by me," he continued. "The diving looks nice but five points stand if you walk over and put the ball down or you dive. I think sometimes showboating doesn't look great but he did finish the try off well."

McCall frustrated

Saracens first-team coach Mark McCall was frustrated by his team's inability to win as they threw the kitchen sink at Gloucester in the dying minutes. "We made a number of line-breaks but this inability to score when we are in the opposition 22 and close the deal came back to haunt us again today," declared McCall. "The first-half performance was very good and a 13-6 lead down here was something you want at half-time. But they were always going to have passages of play. "Their try came from our turnover. We played all the decent rugby in the game but it is frustrating to come away with a losing bonus point. "Our performances away at Bath and here today have been two good ones. Kameli Ratuvou has got a serious injury and David Strettle is also injured so we are down in backs. We will have to wait and see what the news is on those two players before we play against Harlequins. "But if we play like that and show that enthusiasm, then we know we will win more matches than we lose."