It’s back to Gallagher Premiership action this week for Gloucester Rugby as they travel to Sandy Park to face fifth-placed Exeter Chiefs.

George Skivington says preparation this week will be key to getting a result in Devon against the 2019/20 winners.

“They’ve got a lot of trophies in the cabinet and they’re a well-oiled machine with a lot of big names. It’s a big challenge for us and we know we’ve got to be really good, so we’re just trying to prepare well for it.”

The last time the teams met in October, the Cherry & Whites claimed a memorable 38-22 win under the lights at Kingsholm, but Skivington says his side aren’t reading too much into their previous meeting.

“We’ll obviously look back at that game, but I think both teams have moved on from then. They’re playing slightly differently, and we’ve got a few slightly different personnel in, so there are different challenges for both teams.

“You don’t want to think too much about what happened last time round it’s important to keep looking forwards.”

With Gloucester just one place above the Chiefs, and only ten points between third and last place in the league, Skivington says every match in the Gallagher Premiership is important.

“Third place to ninth are all chasing those top spots, so I think everybody will just be focused on trying to win this weekend and then in the next round of games.

“It will be tight for the rest of the year and every game is going to be massively important, but as I said there’s been a lot of good learnings for us over the last few weeks and we just want to keep improving.”

Last weekend, the Cherry & Whites progressed in the Heineken Champions cup thanks to their impressive win in Bordeaux. The Head Coach was delighted with his side’s game management.

“It was a very hard-fought win, it’s a very tough place to go. It was a brilliant atmosphere in a brilliant stadium, but I was proud of how they managed the game.”

“There were some helter-skelter moments and in true French style they opened us up a couple of times, but I thought the group regathered, came up with a plan and executed well.”

Skivington admits it was up there with one of his favourite wins as Gloucester boss.

“We weren’t favourites going into that game for sure and there were a couple of lads playing in different positions but as I say I think it was one of the games we managed better. We stuck to the process, and it wasn’t perfect, but we took some good opportunities when they were there and everybody on the pitch worked really hard to get the win.

The Cherry & Whites face another French trip in the round of 16 when they head to the home of the 2021/22 Heineken Champions Cup winners, La Rochelle. Skivington says the team will take confidence from their win in Bordeaux, but for now, all eyes are on their return to Premiership action this Saturday.

“You always take confidence from a win, and we take some good learnings as well about how we could have done things a little better. But La Rochelle is a little bit down the line, it’s an exciting prospect to visit the reigning champions, but we’ll get to that when we get to that. For now, we’re back in the Prem, and we’re excited to go and play Exeter on Saturday.”

Skivington looks forward to the return of Premiership action

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