GLOUCESTER 15 LONDON WELSH 14
HESITANCY racked ragged Gloucester for three quarters of this confusing contest.
The Cherry and Whites lost all their poise – and backed themselves into a corner of indecision that almost cost them their play-off dreams.
The scrum – boosted by Jim Hamilton's brutal ballast – was Gloucester's saviour, and their only area to function.
Welsh's number eight Daniel Browne cut a swathe through a disparate defence, tighthead prop James Tideswell rumbled on – and then popped up out of the tackle to send wing Phil MacKenzie in for a try to stun the already-staggered home rabble.
Somehow Gloucester conspired to play worse in the third quarter than the second.
The 18-12 home defeat to London Irish in January was supposed to be the nadir of Gloucester's season.
But the first hour of this debacle definitely trumps that shambles.
The sweat of relief was swiped clear from the Kingsholm brow then, when Gloucester's pack bulldozed Welsh off the ball and into the dirt of their own 22.
Under the sticks, with five minutes to go, Burns stepped up and slotted his fifth penalty – to claim a one-point lead that proved enough for victory.
Relieved rugby director Nigel Davies hailed Gloucester's trademark resilience to fight back.
But the disappointed boss admitted his men need far more than that to realise their ambitions of a top-four finish.
Davies explained: "Once again they showed great resilience but we want to show a bit more than that really.
"But resilience is not enough.
"We're massively relieved.
"First and foremost I have to congratulate London Welsh on a fantastic performance.
"They had a real cause, and represented it very well.
"We didn't deal with the pressure they put on us, we lost our shape too easily, we didn't hold onto the ball.
"The only time we had any phases in the first half was when we had the penalty at the end.
"We didn't play well.
"Some of the credit has to go to London Welsh for that, but we've got to look long and hard at ourselves.
"We don't want to play like that and we want to play more rugby than we did in this game.
"And we've got to if we're going to have any chance of getting the results we need."
Once Gloucester had started shabbily and struggled to generate any attacking rhythm, they then proceeded to psych themselves out of finding a solution.
The harder they tried – whether forcing the issue or turning to pragmatism – the worse things became.
Two penalties apiece had the teams level at the break, with Gloucester's head-scratching leaving a chasm in the Kingsholm cranium.
Gordon Ross' third penalty edged the visitors in front after the turnaround, before Burns missed a sitter.
And then came that ignominious try, albeit well-crafted by the Welsh.
A late tackle on Ross from Koree Britton left its mark, and the fly-half failed to convert the try or land a penalty approaching the hour-mark.
Finally Gloucester heeded the litany of warnings, and dragged themselves out of disaster.
Suddenly Dan Robson was sniping through the fringes again, and Sione Kalamafoni was bullocking through tacklers for fun.
Burns landed two penalties to drag Gloucester back to trail by two points heading into the final ten minutes.
Replacement hooker Britton blasted down the left flank after a clever tap-pass from Hamilton.
And Gloucester started to sniff the stink of a sneaky match-winning try.
There was no way through, but the hosts still salvaged a scrum.
And that was enough for the potent home eight.
Hats off to Dan Murphy, Britton and Dario Chistolini for inflicting maximum damage when it mattered most.
As Welsh faces hit the dirt, so too their victory hopes were similarly muddied.
Burns dinked the penalty home, and Gloucester held on.
There will be no chance of holding on against champions Harlequins on Friday night.
Boss Davies will call for exponential improvement – and the Cherry and Whites will need it.
SCORERS:
GLOUCESTER: Pens: Burns 5 (8, 40, 62, 69, 75).
LONDON WELSH: Tries: MacKenzie (52). Pens: Ross 3 (13, 25, 44).
YELLOW CARDS:
GLOUCESTER: May (44).
GLOUCESTER: R Cook, C Sharples, M Tindall (H Trinder, 68), B Twelvetrees, J May (M Thomas, blood 35-37), F Burns, D Robson, D Murphy, H Edmonds (K Britton, 56), S Knight (D Chistolini, 56), J Hamilton (capt), W James, P Buxton (T Savage, 46), A Hazell (A Qera, 46), S Kalamafoni. Unused: Y Thomas, D Lewis.
LONDON WELSH: S Jewell, P MacKenzie, G Tiesi, S Parker, S Stegmann, G Ross, T Keats (A Davies, 69), T Bristow (B Moss, 76), D George (G Bateman, 77), J Tideswell (A Joly, 64), J Mills (capt), K Kulemin (M Corker, 67), J C Farias, M Hills, D Browne (A Balding, 74). Unused: J Lewis, N Scott.
REFEREE: Martin Fox.
ATTENDANCE: 14,627.
