George Skivington: Balance is better but much to do – Exeter Chiefs vs Gloucester Preview

By Jon Newcombe

Match Preview…

Exeter v Gloucester

Today. Kick-off 3pm, Sandy Park

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington is confident his team are close to striking the right balance between attack and defence as they look to put their Sandy Park jinx to bed.

The Cherry & Whites looked set to end their nine-match winless run against Exeter in the Premiership at the Devon venue in November last year, only for Henry Slade to kick the home side to a 25-24 victory.

Gloucester’s last victory there was 26-25 in January 2015, but they look in better shape than ever to put that to bed, especially against a crest-fallen Chiefs team propping up the league.

Gloucester Form

Gloucester have reeled off three straight Premiership wins – against Newcastle (36-7), Northampton (25-17) and most recently, 14-0 against Harlequins – the first time they have kept Premiership opposition scoreless since the 64-0 rout of Bath in April 2022.

With Gloucester staying true to their pre-season promise to entertain the fans with a new attacking style of rugby, securing try bonus points in all but two of their eight matches and averaging four per game, they are starting to look a decent all-round outfit. But Skivington admits there is still plenty of work to do.

DoR: George Skivington

“The objective this year was to play a different brand of rugby and move the ball and have some fun and entertain and score lots of tries, and hopefully, and I think we have started doing that well,” said the former London Irish lock.

“But with that the emphasis on attack hurt our ‘D’ a little bit at the start, and we knew we’d have to find that balance, and I think we are getting somewhere nearer to that now.

“I think the guys have taken some good steps forward, especially in the last couple of Premiership games.

“We’ve managed the games well, our defence has been really tested – second half against Saints and the whole of that Quins game – and it has stood up, which is great.

“Ultimately, we are going to have to be good across all areas if we want to compete.

“It is pleasing what we have seen the last couple of weeks but we need to put more performances like that together. The balance is miles better than it was, but there is still a lot of work to do.”

Skivington’s Reign

Skivington is approaching 100 Premiership games in charge of Gloucester having been appointed in July 2020.

The last four-and-a-bit years have been testing with a Premiership win record of just 40 per cent. But if the Cherry & Whites win at Sandy Park today, which they must be favourites to do, four league wins in a row will equal their best run under him.

Gloucester last achieved four on the bounce in October 2022 but fell away badly after that, finishing second from bottom.

Skivington is confident they are in better shape to enjoy sustainable success and avoid that happening again.

He said: “We are a very different squad setup, and I am a very different coach to what I was as a coach two years ago.

“I think we are a little bit further down the line and probably in a better stance to deal with any situations that might have caught us out last time.

“But this league is ruthless; we won on Friday night and we went down a spot in the table and that shows how tough it is across the board. We won’t be taking anything granted for the rest of the year.”

Exeter’s Form

Under Skivington, Gloucester endured their worst-ever losing run in the Premiership last season when they were beaten in nine consecutive matches.

Exeter are going through the same thing under Rob Baxter this term but Exeter’s 31-7 win at Kingsholm in the Premiership Cup a month ago means Skivington remains wary of a backlash this weekend.

“We had a similar run last year and I don’t think Rob will be too rattled by it,” he said.

“Rob has been in the game a long time and is much more experienced than I am, and he’s had some really good times and he’s had some times when he has really had to graft, and he’ll have a plan.

“And I know for a fact he’ll believe in his systems and the way he does stuff and he’ll stick to his guns. He’s a smart rugby coach.

“We saw them up here in the Prem Rugby Cup and we saw exactly what they can do when they are on it. Whatever he did that week really caught us off guard.

Highs and Lows

“As a coach you sign up for this world of highs, lows and getting judged on everything you are doing and you take the rough with the smooth but Rob has seen it all.”

Skivington added: “It’s a tough place to go and it’ll be really tough this weekend. The big thing for me is we keep working on what we are working on with the balance, and we keep getting better.

“I think we can be better than we were Friday night. We left some opportunities out there. I am aware of Exeter and our record there but I just need the boys to keep pushing hard in everything we do.”

READ MORE: I tried to move too fast and that backfired, says Rob Baxter