European Cup: Agen 26-18 Gloucester: Gloucester's fragile toehold in Europe crumbled beneath them last night, beaten again by the side that did so much to undermine their hopes back in October, but not before the English side had come back from a dreadful start which saw them 14 points down within 13 minutes.
They were finally nailed by four late penalties from the Agen outhalf, Jerome Miquel, who did not miss a kick all night.
Agen had made three changes to the pack. That meant that "Cau Cau" - Rupeni Caucaunibuca, or Rups to the locals - was on the left wing, from where he caused trouble all over the field in the first leg. This time, however, the Fijian was faced by a threequarter line of England internationals but it did not seem to matter. James Simpson-Daniel and Mike Tindall, who both missed the first game, had their hands full from the start.
Cau Cau looked even heavier than in October, but in the ninth minute, from a standing start, and a floated pass from Nicolas Morlaes, he outpaced the cover and got in an off-load to Pepito Elhorga who scored in the left-hand corner.
Within four minutes Dave Vainqueur won a tug-of-war for the ball, Manu Ahotaeiloa came up alongside and when he slipped the ball to his fellow centre, Arnaud Mignardi, he ran in to score.
The English Premiership side were seemingly on the ropes before the referee Donal Courtney broke up the pattern of the game by brandishing the yellow card. While the South African lock Willem Stoltz cooled his heals, Iain Balshaw benefited from Adam Bolding's muscle and Rory Lawson's thinking to pull the score back to 14-5.
However, the balance was quickly restored when Tindall was sent to the bin and then Laurent Cabarry and Carlos Nieto left together after a frontrow dust-up.
Ryan Lamb nibbled deeper into the lead with a penalty and then came the run of the night from Simpson-Daniel. In the 61st minute the England wing made 50 yards before Peter Richards, on for centre Anthony Allen, finished the job. The conversion put Gloucester into the lead for the first time and a second penalty for Lamb looked to have things wrapped up.
That was before Courtney completed his busy evening, however by awarding Miquel four penalties - three from in front of the posts - and the outhalf made no mistake to deny Gloucester even a bonus point which was the least they deserved.
Sadly for Agen, victory is unlikely to be enough for them to win the group as Leinster will clinch qualification if they beat Edinburgh tonight.
Guardian Service
AGEN:Elhorga; Vainqueur, Ahotaeiloa, Mignardi, Caucaunibuca; Miquel, Morlaes; L Cabarry, Tiatia, Galasso, Stolz, Socol, Lievremont, Culine, Soucaze. Replacements: Meeuws for L Cabarry (50). Not used: Narjissi, Popescu, Yukes, Fulton, Faaletino, Stoltz. Sin bin: Stolz (30), L Cabarry (40), Vainqueur (67).
GLOUCESTER:Morgan; Simpson-Daniel, Tindall, Allen, Balshaw; Lamb, Lawson; Califano, M Davies, Nieto, Bortolami, Brown, Buxton, Hazell, Balding. Replacements: Foster for Morgan (15), Richards for Allen (44), Collazo for Califano (60), Azam for M Davies (53), Boer for Hazell (50). Not used: James, Walker. Sin bin: Tindall (38), Nieto (40), Boer (80). Att: 8,000.
Referee:D Courtney (Leinster).
• Biarritz kept up their 100 per cent record in Pool Six with a convincing 45-3 home win over Italian side Overmach Parma last night. Biarritz made it five wins from as many matches as centre Marcelo Bosch claimed two tries and scrum-half Julien Dupuy kicked five conversions. There were also tries for Petru Balan, Benjamin Noirot, Serge Betsen, Martin Gaitan and Philippe Bidabe. Parma's solitary reply came with a penalty from Alejandro Canale.
