Sunday the 10th the Gloucestershire Gladiators take the quick bus journey down to Bristol to take on the UWE Bullets 2s.
This game will be under the lights, as kick-off has been moved back to 4 pm, and with it being wintertime here in the UK, the floodlights will be on, something neither team has had to play with before.
The last time these two met was last season with the home side being the Gladiators, with the score being 16-0 in the home side’s favour.
However, this season, these two teams are in a completely different shape from how they were when they last met. This makes this game very hard to call.
The UWE bullets go into this game sitting currently on 2-1. Their first game and win wasn’t even a match, let alone a competition. The match never went ahead as the Bath Spa Bulldogs opted to hand a walk-over win to the Bullets as they didn’t believe their young team of rookies was ready for a match and didn’t want to risk people getting injured.
Their first proper match came away against the Plymouth Blitz. This was a very close back-and-forth game leading to a low-scoring result, 12-0 to Plymouth. This was the first time the Bullets got on the field in a game situation and held themselves against a strong Plymouth team.
Their next win did come from playing the match. They played Worcester away the week after the Gladiators played them. This game was a mud bath, the rain had ruined the pitch which led to a low scoring game. The final score after full-time was 20-0, this was the first points the Bullets had scored within three games.
The Gladiators have had a strange start to the season currently sitting at 1-1. Having begun their campaign with an away loss to Aberystwyth. The game finished 12-6 in favour of the Welsh side, but with the Gladiator’s playing “nowhere near their standard in the match” according to head coach Dan Pell, there was a lot left to be desired when watching the Glads play.
Their second match also ended with questions. They played Worcester Royals in another away fixture and seemed to revert to their form of the previous year winning 20-0. However, the Royals were a shell of a team, with minimal numbers they put up a good fight, but the match was stopped halfway through the second quarter due to multiple injuries on the Worcester team, handing the 20-0 win to the Glads.
Head Coach had this to say about the Gladiator’s preparation and chance for this match, “If we as a team play to the standard I know we can then we should have a very good chance at winning this match-up.
Bullets 2s are a strong team and have the support of their 1s team who are the best in the country, so we have to be ready for things we wouldn’t normally see in this division.
The team has trained well, some bumps in preparation have hit us with key members of the team getting injuries the day before the match, but hopefully, they are able to play.”
This match is going to be an interesting one to watch. Both teams have something to prove, especially the Gladiators as they haven’t really got their season underway yet, so they are looking for a statement win under the lights. The Bullets are looking to prove that they can hang with the big boys of the division and defend their home turf. It will be an exciting one.
