Rugby's judiciary are busy men and there will be no respite in the coming days. A fine performance by London Irish was overshadowed by a flurry of six yellow cards, a fusillade of punches thrown by the Gloucester captain, Gareth Delve, and a further outbreak of pushing and finger-pointing on the touchline. A suspected dislocated shoulder for England's full-back, Delon Armitage, merely added to the list of post-match issues.
Delve could join Armitage on the sidelines for a lengthy period if the citing commissioner fails to uncover sufficient mitigating evidence for his series of right-hand punches to the face and body of Irish's Samoan replacement back-rower, George Stowers. According to the Exiles' coach, Toby Booth, the visitors were looking to settle a few scores long before the heated late scenes near the tunnel, during which a visibly angry Stowers had to be restrained by his team-mates.
"They came out at half-time with a few different intentions," said Booth. "It looked like things bubbled over out of pure frustration."
Four of the six yellow cards were for technical offences but Gloucester were briefly reduced to 12 men and their head coach, Bryan Redpath, could do without losing Delve given that his co-captain, Mike Tindall, was injured on the season's opening weekend. The Welsh No8 took exception to Stowers's tackle on Gloucester's replacement scrum-half, Dave Lewis, and his fist-pumping impersonation of Joe Calzaghe left the Samoan with a cut and bruised eye. "Gareth Delve is a good, honest man and I've no issues with him," said Redpath.
As for Armitage, the results of his hospital scan tonight will be awaited with bated breath by club and country. He looks almost certain to miss the start of his club's Heineken Cup campaign and must also be rated doubtful for England's autumn international programme. With Riki Flutey and Luke Narraway already out, the domestic season is not unfolding as Martin Johnson, the national team manager, would prefer.
If, on the other hand, England can reproduce the attacking fluency Irish showed in the first-half, Johnson will be thrilled. Even before the game degenerated into a one-sided romp, Irish were far too hot for their opponents.To make matters worse for the Cherry and Whites the sniper-in-chief was none other than Ryan Lamb, a Gloucester boy to the marrow, who kicked 20 points and put a shaky debut performance against Saracens at Twickenham last week firmly behind him.
Lamb would be the first to acknowledge that he was given an armchair ride by his pack, who made life seriously tough for Gloucester in the scrums and displayed a splendid sense of purpose from start to finish. Their fourth try took a while in coming but there was never any question about the outcome. Gloucester, with Lamb clinging to the wreckage, shipped 42 points in Reading on their previous visit in December and, despite a significant number of subsequent staff changes, are no closer to laying their M4 jinx.
Of the two England full-backs on view, Armitage was leading comfortably on points before to his departure. Gloucester's Olly Morgan did put in an excellent try-saving tackle on a rampaging Steffon Armitage in the right corner but he was at fault in the build-up to the Exiles' first try. A chip from Elvis Seveali'i should not have caused major problems but Morgan and Rory Lawson failed to collect and Delon Armitage made them pay.
Irish could easily have scored a couple more tries before Sailosi Tagicakibau's 37th-minute effort in the left corner, not least when the increasingly confident Lamb, with a huge overlap, opted to put up a hanging cross-kick which Delon Armitage could not gather.
A complete reshuffle in the front-row was the visitors' response to the 23-3 half-time scoreline but it made little difference. Even when Irish's No8, Chris Hala'Ufia, was in the sin-bin Gloucester found themselves pinned in their own half, with Paul Hodgson a persistent thorn in their side. Only when the referee, Dean Richards, awarding the visitors a put-in, extended his right arm and clocked the home scrum-half in the face did Hodgson come off second best. Long before Irish concluded with a penalty try and an excellent weaving second score by Tagicakibau, it was all over bar the shouting. The former England centre Will Greenwood has tipped Gloucester to be this season's Premiership champions. On this evidence, it looks a bold punt.
London Irish D Armitage (Hewat, 61); Thompstone, Seveali'i (Richards 54), Mapasua, Tagicakibau; Lamb, Hodgson (Lalanne 76); Dermody (Murphy 61), Coetzee (Buckland 61), Ion (Rautenbach 61), Kennedy, Casey (capt; Perry 65), Danaher, S Armitage, Hala'Ufia (Stowers 61).
Tries D Armitage, Tagicakibau 2, penalty. Cons Lamb 4 Pens Lamb 4. Sin-bin Hala'Ufia 51, Stowers 79.
Gloucester Morgan; Sharples, Molenaar (Simpson-Daniel h-t), Fuimaono-Sapolu, Voyce; Robinson, R Lawson (Lewis 65); Dickinson (Wood 41-69), S Lawson, Somerville (Capdevielle h-t), Attwood, Brown (Bortolami 58), Strokosch, Hazell (Qera 45), Delve.
Try Sharples. Con Robinson. Pen Robinson.
Sin-bin Sharples 34, Qera 69, Capdevielle 73, Delve 79.
Referee D Richards (Berkshire). Attendance 12,309.
