RUGBY/Gloucester 19-13 Leinster:They love a good battle on a pudding hereabouts. On a blustery, wet, throbbing night in Kingsholm, the Cherry & Whites faithful and their team cranked up the heat, so giving Leinster the kind of litmus test they have to come through if they are to be contenders.
They failed it, and may have irredeemably damaged their Heineken European Cup chances. They can more or less forget about a home quarter-final anywhere now.
Even a late bonus point gives them little hope of a home quarter-final as one of the top four pool winners, as Stade Français will assuredly overtake them by dint of a bonus-point win at home to Calvisano, and they could well now play Munster away if the latter win today.
Allowing for decidedly dodgy tries for the home team, on a deeply frustrating night for the visitors, Leinster largely got what they deserved, for they didn't show enough appreciation of the conditions and their set-pieces failed them badly.
For a team to have any pretensions to winning in places like Gloucester, they cannot afford to cough up eight or nine set-pieces, and their inability to execute their own lineouts and scrums ultimately led to their downfall.
Leinster could so easily have had an earlier foothold. With effectively their first play of the match off an athletic take by Malcolm O'Kelly they created the extra man from halfway with a miss move and Girvan Dempsey hitting the line.
But Denis Hickie didn't hold his width, looking for a cutback pass Dempsey didn't see, when the winger would assuredly have run in from 35 metres.
The vocal travelling contingent were suitably encouraged but thereafter they, les Bleus and their galacticos had to live off scraps in the first half as that opening salvo became a bit of an illusion.
Small problems lead to bigger ones in rugby and Bernard Jackman's iffy throwing in the wind saw three of his first four deliveries go awry. A jinking run into traffic and an up-and-under into the wind by Felipe Contepomi didn't help.
It was all about control and Gloucester had more of that, Leinster lapsing into their besetting bad habit with the concession of a 6-2 penalty count in the first quarter.
That was compounded by Brian O'Driscoll being binned, a tad harshly, for playing the ball after the tackle when still on his feet and referee Nigel Owens was too slow to the breakdown to signal if a ruck had formed before brandishing his yellow card.
The Gloucester back line, missing some of its would-be galacticos, weren't impressive; Mike Tindall and Iain Balshaw struggled with the bar of soap and Willie Walker (who hit the post with a routine penalty) lacked conviction.
So they kept driving through their pack, and though Stan Wright wrestled the ball away from one maul and Leinster stole another, Owens awarded a penalty try for collapsing another maul; a thoroughly unconvincing decision.
Defending well, but living off scraps, Leinster nevertheless ensured parity at the break when showing what they were capable of, and how porous Gloucester were around the 10 channel and through phases.
First Wright set the ball up off Gordon Darcy, then Stephen Keogh sliced through off Whitaker's pass and calmly found support from Jamie Heaslip before O'Driscoll nipped under the posts when picking from the ruck.
As the third quarter progressed and Leinster had the better of the elements, it seemed they were beginning to assert control, although this was offset by Shane Horgan being helped off after twisting a knee and Robert Kearney having a try disallowed for supposed crossing by Jamie Heaslip.
Almost single-handedly Heaslip was putting Leinster on the front foot with a succession of big rumbles, one of which earned a penalty against Nick Wood for not rolling away. Contepomi's kick put them ahead for the first time in the night.
Leinster were even getting on top in the scrums, or at any rate getting the decisions, for a little while but failed to maximise this advantage when opting to kick to the corner instead of putting themselves six points ahead.
They botched the lineout, so much so that Keogh caught it at the tail in not-so-splendid isolation, was turned, and turned over the ball.
It was also the turning point of the match.
Ignited by Peter Richards's quick tap, Hickie's failure to find touch and pack power off a close-range scrum, the Cherry & Whites earned a try for replacement Christian Califano.
They now had their tails up, and Leinster confounded their inability to complete the basics when a scrum against the head led to Tindall and Balshaw switching the attack for Mark Foster to chip Robert Kearney and be awarded the touchdown ahead of Stephen Keogh by the TMO despite an apparent knock-on. Again it looked a questionable decision.
"You're not singing any more," went the crowd.
They weren't, and understandably. They had nothing to sing about, despite another but probably meaningless Contepomi late penalty with the last kick.
SCORING SEQUENCE:20 mins: penalty try, Walker con 7-0; 33: O'Driscoll try, Contepomi con 7-7 (half-time 7-7); 58: Contepomi pen 7-10; 65: Califano try 12-10; 74: Foster try, Lamb con 19-10; 91: Contepomi pen 19-13.
GLOUCESTER RUGBY: I Balshaw; J Bailey, J Adams, M Tindall, M Foster; W Walker, P Richards; N Wood, M Davies, C Nieto; M Bortolami (capt), A Brown; P Buxton, A Hazell, A Balding. Replacements: R Lamb for Walker (half-time), W James for Brown (54 mins), O Azam for Wood, C Califano for Davies (both 58 mins), R Lawson for Richards (72 mins), R Keil for Tindall (75 mins). Not used: J Boer. Sinbinned: Richards (24 mins).
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, D Hickie; F Contepomi, C Whitaker; S Wright, B Jackman, W Green; T Hogan, M O'Kelly; S Keogh, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: R Kearney for Horgan (40+3 mins), O Finegan for O'Kelly (51 mins), B Blaney for Jackman (59 mins), R Corrigan for Wright (62 mins). Not used: C Jowitt, G Easterby, C Warner. Sinbinned: O'Driscoll (13 mins).
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).
