Gloucester Rugby faces more citings

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Friday, October 02, 2009
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This is Gloucestershire

Two more Gloucester Rugby players were yesterday cited for incidents in the game against Saracens last weekend.

Hooker Olivier Azam was expected to face a hearing after his alleged kick on England captain Steve Borthwick.

But he will be joined at the Filton Holiday Inn by team-mate Adam Eustace, accused of a stamp on All Black scrum-half Justin Marshall.

Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath revealed the club would contest the Azam case.

He said: "We will appeal against the case. The incident was not all one way and we will fight our case properly.

"There was more to the incident. It wasn't all Azam's fault."

Should either player face a ban, it would place more strain on Gloucester's resources heading into the Heineken Cup opener against Newport Gwent Dragons next week.

Before that the Cherry and Whites face a difficult trip to Leeds in a must-win game against the Guinness Premiership relegation favourites.

There was good injury news for Redpath this week, with prop Greg Somerville, lock Dave Attwood and full-back Olly Morgan all in contention for selection, the latter in line for a place on the bench.

Redpath said: "That's great. It's what I wanted going into the next two or three weeks with Heineken and the Premiership match.

"You want to have as many people up there fit and running. We've got a short turnaround so we need to get our heads around that as well."

Redpath admitted that after a poor start to the season on the disciplinary front, Gloucester would have to be 'whiter than white' against Leeds.

"I don't think we've dealt well with some of the referees, I think we've been poor," he said.

"We haven't reacted to what they've deemed as an offside or a hands in ruck. I've highlighted it.

"Discipline is something we've talked about. We're not a dirty side.

"We've been a little bit put out there in that bracket because of citings and yellow cards.

"We do need to be smarter in that aspect of the game. The penalties and yellow cards have allowed teams to build scorelines.

"We've got to be whiter than white because the referees are pulling us in some situations I've seen happen in other games which haven't been brought up."

Redpath also knows they are facing a Leeds team who believe they can win.

"I know they've targeted this," he said. "They've gone out in the press and said Gloucester is a game they think they can win."

Azam and Eustace will both appear at hearings on Monday at 4.30pm and 6.30pm respectively.

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