Everitt's perfect six earns cup advantage

London Irish 25 Gloucester 1

It is no easy matter to organise a tournament in which one semi-finalist plays at home and the other three play away, but the oval-ball grandees at the Rugby Football Union have concocted stranger brews in their time. London Irish, deprived of possession for long spells, but armed with a decent line-out and a kicking game way beyond Gloucester's fathoming, duly progressed to the last four of the Powergen Cup at the Madejski Stadium yesterday, and will find themselves on very familiar territory when their Reading venue goes "neutral" in early March.

The Madejski will be about as neutral as County Kerry when the Exiles play their second semi-final in three seasons: although Harlequins, Newcastle and Northampton will each be allocated as many tickets as their hosts, it is likely that a good 40 per cent of the 24,000 seats will be occupied by the Guinness-swilling fraternity.

Despite that, Conor O'Shea, the Exiles' rugby director, had the cheek to say: "I don't think that it will make a massive difference."

Those RFU members uncomfortable with the decision to fix the location of the back-to-back semis before knowing the identities of the contenders were probably praying for a Gloucester victory, but there was little chance of that with Barry Everitt in prime form with the boot.

Everitt slotted six from six between the eighth and 73rd minutes, and dropped a goal out of nowhere shortly before half-time ­ a three-pointer that put the home side in control at 16-7. Gloucester had a thoroughly decent kicker of their own in Ludovic Mercier, but the French outside-half spent the afternoon at full-back, where he looked about as comfortable as a 20st prop on ice skates, and was unable to bring his tactical acumen to bear on proceedings.

While the West Countrymen scrummaged and mauled with their customary vigour, there was a distinct whiff of don't-carishness about most other aspects of their act, from team selection ­ no Eustace, no Hazell, no Paramore, no Cornwell, no Collazo ­ to line-out drill, which was laughably incompetent. Unusually, they were in no mood to fight, either: Chris Fortey, who could start a scrap in an empty room, did lay into the outstanding James Cockle, but not until the fourth minute of injury time.

If Gloucester had one eye on Friday night's Parker Pen Shield quarter-final with Ebbw Vale at Kingsholm ­ Philippe Saint-André, their coach, has put a serious number of eggs into the European basket this season ­ Irish were right up for the contest. Cockle may have been the pick of the forwards on view, but the Welshman Steve Williams was not far off the pace. Among the backs, meanwhile, Brendan Venter's contribution at inside centre was every bit as significant as Everitt's.

Now that Harry Viljoen has turned his back on the Springbok coaching job, the South Africans could do far worse than to entice Venter home to Cape Town. One of the most influential members of the late Kitch Christie's World Cup-winning vintage of 1995, he would at least give a deeply divided Bokke camp a sense of togetherness. Venter has acted as the conscience of every side he has ever played in, and if the national hierarchy ignore his claims on the grounds that he is not coaching at Super 12 level, more fool them.

Not that Venter had much to do with London Irish's solitary try after 24 minutes. His opposite number, Terry Fanolua, saved him the trouble of creating a score by failing to hold a scruffy pass from Henry Paul and presenting Paul Sackey with a soft finish near the posts.

Fanolua did not have one of his happier days in the Gloucester midfield, and when his over-ambitious flick-pass went to ground within four minutes of the previous calamity, Everitt banged over his second penalty to open up a 13-point lead.

Andy Gomarsall's muscular close-range finish 11 minutes before the break gave the visitors a glimmer of light, but Everitt drew the curtains with his drop goal.

London Irish: Try Sackey; Conversion Everitt; Penalties Everitt 5; Drop goal Everitt. Gloucester: Try Gomarsall; Conversion Mercier; Penalty Mercier.

London Irish: M Horak; P Sackey, G Appleford, B Venter, J Bishop; B Everitt, H Martens (R Barrett, 80); M Worsley, R Kirke, R Hardwick (S Halford, 46), R Strudwick (capt), S Williams, J Cockle, D Danaher, C Sheasby.

Gloucester: L Mercier (M Garvey, 64); D O'Leary, J Ewens, T Fanolua, J Simpson-Daniel; H Paul, A Gomarsall; F Pucciarello, C Fortey, A Deacon (capt), E Pearce, R Fidler, J Boer (K Sewabu, 74), J Forrester, P Caillet.

Referee: S Lander (Liverpool).