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Many happy returns for Lamb

Friday 16th May 2008

Ryan Lamb hopes to repeat his birthday form from last year

Ryan Lamb plans to celebrate his birthday in style on Sunday - by guiding Gloucester into this season's Guinness Premiership final.

And play-off opponents Leicester should take note because Lamb has a habit of making the occasion count.

When the Gloucester fly-half turned 21 last year, he marked it by producing a man-of-the-match display for England Saxons in their 51-3 Churchill Cup victory over America at Stockport.

That performance was just the tonic Lamb needed, as it arrived just six days after the Tigers mauled Gloucester 44-16 at Twickenham.

Lamb scored Gloucester's solitary try on that rainswept Saturday afternoon. Leicester though, ran in six with Samoan powerhouse Alesana Tuilagi revelling in his role as a one-man wrecking crew.

A year on, Gloucester are firm favourites to end Leicester's reign as Premiership champions, having finished the 22-game regular season 10 points and three places above Tigers.

Table-toppers for a third time in six seasons, Gloucester also have home advantage, while their last two victories were against Sunday's fellow title challengers Wasps and Bath, who clash at Adams Park.

"I think we are a more experienced side now," said Lamb.

"I don't think last season maybe we would have gone away to Wasps and won, then beaten Bath at home to get a home semi-final.

"We've had two massive wins the last couple of weeks. We are all confident, and we've got momemtum going into Sunday.

"There have been question marks over us in a lot of the media, and yes, it bugs us because we know what we can do.

"There are no major trophies under our belt at the moment, and that is where this club needs to go. We've got a nice new stand, the club is flourishing and it would be fantastic to get a bit of silverware.

"But we know Leicester are always there or thereabouts when it comes to the play-offs. They are always going to be tough to beat.

"Once we knew we had Leicester this weekend, we all thought 'we've got a game on our hands."

As Leicester celebrated at Twickenham last May, so Gloucester boss Dean Ryan put a comforting arm of consolation around his fly-half prospect as the battered west country outfit trudged off.

It was one of those snapshot moments that captured the mood perfectly - it is also a day Lamb has not forgotten.

"When you look back on it, maybe I was a little naive, maybe we were a bit immature in the way we played the game, but we still took a lot from it," he added.

"You want to erase the bad things about it, but you also want to have it in the back of your mind that you don't want to experience that type of feeling again.

"For a couple of days afterwards it was pretty bad, but then I went away with the England Saxons and got man-of-the-match on my birthday the Friday night after the final.

"That helped erase a few of the memories, yet it is always in the back of your mind, especially when you look at your medal afterwards and it says 'runners-up' or whatever on it.

"It hurts, but that's professional sport. There has to be a loser, and that day at Twickenham last year we were the losers."

Kingsholm will be packed for the latest stage of Gloucester's title bid, and local hero Lamb - his old school is barely four miles from the ground - knows what another Twickenham trip would mean.

"The people of Gloucester love their rugby," he said.

"They come out to support us week in, week out. The fans are always there for us, and as a team we want to go out and win something."

Lamb lines up in an unchanged team following an epic 8-6 win against Bath last Saturday, with centre Anthony Allen and flanker Akapusi Qera both recovering from shoulder complaints.

Centre Mike Tindall, meanwhile, has shrugged off an ankle injury that forced his first-half departure.

Leicester make one change following a tense 31-28 success against Quins, with Tuilagi returning to the side instead of Johne Murphy, who is injured.

"The team showed great resilience and character in the victory last Saturday, and I think the players can take a lot of confidence from that," said Tigers Head Coach Marcelo Loffreda.

"I said we were not going to give up while we still had a chance to qualify for the play-offs.

"Now, it is in our own hands again and we have another opportunity."