Skivington: Balance is better but much to do

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.

- JON NEWCOMBE

The Cherry & Whites looked set to end their ninematch 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 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.

“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.