Tbilisi win was key - Skivington

GEORGE Skivington has credited the European Challenge Cup win against Black Lion in Tbilisi as the moment Gloucester turned their season around.

- JON NEWCOMBE

Any pre-season optimism brought about by Zach Mercer’s arrival from Montpellier had long since disappeared by the time the Cherry & Whites travelled to Tbilisi for the start of their European adventure at the start of December.

Gloucester went into what appeared to be a proverbial banana-skin game on the back of six straight Premiership defeats with only Newcastle below them in the table.

Met by a hostile environment and a fired-up Black Lion team, they managed to find a way to win, George Barton’s five penalties seeing them home by 15-10.

And now they’re on they’re on the verge of a historic Cup double.

“We were missing a lot of players and we didn’t get the tactical part of it right so the combination of the two left us in a bit of a sticky spot,” said Skivington, below, who coached England A against a Portugal XV in February.