George Skivington is looking forward to an “exciting challenge” this Saturday when Gloucester Rugby host Wasps at Kingsholm in their first home game of the season. The Head Coach faced the media ahead of the fixture to preview the game and look back at Round 1.

Reflecting on Leicester Tigers

“Everyone has been really honest and everyone has been really hurt. We’ve trained hard today and we’ll train hard for the rest of the week. We expect everyone to pick up and crack on but I don’t think that game was a fair reflection of us as a team.

“We’ve worked extremely hard and I don’t think losing on the weekend means we work hard and then we turn up for a one off game, we want to build a team that turns up every week.

“This is a new game for us.”

Facing Wasps this Saturday

“Wasps are obviously a great team and they’re playing extremely well. They had every right to get to the final last season and they were obviously very nearly the champions so it’s a massive challenge this weekend.

“They are a team that seems to come together nicely and they haven’t got any obvious weaknesses. It’s an exciting challenge for us. We had a slap last week and we had to shake it off and now we get to play one of the best teams in the country so it’s a good challenge."

On Wasps Head Coach Lee Blackett

“They’ve got a good coaching team and they’ve found their rhythm with Lee’s (Blackett) gameplan with him becoming their top guy. For whatever reason, after he became the boss, it was always a good attacking system, but it’s come to fruition and their boys are obviously enjoying it and it looks like a team and a group who enjoy what they do.

“They’re definitely contenders for the title again and you expect them to get better and better.”

The possibility of fans returning before too long

“It’s very exciting. We’ve all done enough games now infront of nobody! We had one game with 1000 fans but we’ve done every other game with an empty stadium. It doesn’t take away the competitiveness or the enjoyment of the game but it will certainly be nice to arrive at stadiums and have that atmosphere and see people celebrating the collisions and the tries in the excitement of a live game.

“We’ll be so grateful once it comes back. We’ll be welcoming with open arms once we can get everybody in.”

On Lewis Ludlow’s injury

“It was a fairly clear concussion. He’s doing really well and he’s going through the protocol. He won’t be cleared to play until the back end of the week so we’ll see how that pans out but he’s ok, he’s a warrior.”

Press Notes |George Skivington previews Wasps

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