Gloucester Rugby host Bristol Bears on Friday night. Ahead of the game Val Rapava-Ruskin talked us through how preparations have gone for the fixture.

On the Wasps win

"It was a very well balanced performance. Our defence held up well for about 70/75 minutes. I think that our attack and our composure and just the belief within the team. We have a lot of high level players but everyone is buying into it and working hard for each other and whoever's there to score the try, whoever's there at the end, it's a good moment for them but the team comes first and it was a great performance overall."

On holding out for the win

"That's the beauty of sport. You don't know how anything is going to turn out. The pressure that we put ourselves under in training, we know how each mistake can correlate and teams like Wasps who are so dangerous for 80 minutes, you know that the game is never over until the final whistle blows. We knew that they were going to raise the tempo and the squad just knew that they had to go back to the system and do what we were doing at the start.

"As a team, it all comes down to what level you hold yourselves at. I think it was a very dominant performance for about 70 minutes. It's all about getting better. Why they came back in, what was the reason? We're learning week by week. and it was good learning for us. "

On Bristol Bears

"It's a game that we've circled for a very long time. We're looking forward to it and we'll be ready.

"It doesn't matter where anyone is in the league. The thing about the Premiership right now is that there are no easy games. Every team can beat every team and we know that if we're not better than last week then we won't get the result. They play some amazing rugby and they've got some amazing talent and it's going to take absolutely everything from both the boys on the field. It will be a full team effort from all of us to pull this one off."

On the Gloucester Rugby fans being the 16th man

"They always are. It's those special moment whenever you make a big tackle or a big carry. They are always with you. We're playing at home, there's no better feeling and there's no better ground than Kingsholm and we're looking forward to the challenge."

Tickets for our Friday night derby against Bristol are available here.

Val Rapava-Ruskin calls for "full team effort" as we host Bristol

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