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George Skivington: 'The boys out wide take some stopping'

By PA
Ollie Thorley (l) (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Gloucester head coach George Skivington was relieved to come away with a win and collect five valuable points in a hard-fought 36-23 victory over a battling London Irish at Kingsholm.

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Irish had led midway through the second half but Gloucester pulled away with three tries in the final quarter to virtually seal their spot in next season’s European Champions Cup competition.

Gloucester’s tries came from Ollie Thorley, Louis Rees-Zammit, Jack Stanley, Stephen Varney and Lloyd Evans with Evans adding a penalty and two conversions. Billy Twelvetrees also converted two.

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‘I was Never Alone’ Sir Ian McGeechan

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Irish responded with tries from Ollie Hassell-Collins and Agustin Creevy with Paddy Jackson kicking three penalties and two conversions.

Skivington said: “It was a really scrappy game in parts and sometimes those sorts of games go against you so I’m very happy with the win and it’s good to take all the points.

“The guys took their chances well but we needed to be more clinical from the start as when we get it right and are accurate, the boys out wide take some stopping.

“We were heavily penalised at the breakdown but we are doing our best in training to learn how to avoid penalties.”

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Next up for Gloucester is a daunting trip to Sandy Park on Wednesday to face runaway league leaders Exeter and Skivington said: “It’s an extremely difficult task, whatever team we put out. I will be looking for some real character from our boys.

“On pitches like this and with the higgly-piggly nature of this season, it’s hard to ask guys to play within four days so the coaches will sit down tonight and assess what we will do for Wednesday.

“Danny (Cipriani) was rested today as he’s played a lot of rugby since the restart.”

Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney was frustrated with his side’s inability to take advantage of key moments in the game.

He said: “I wouldn’t say it was our best performance since the restart as we always want to win and I was frustrated by our inability to finish off a number of chances.

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“I know we can be a lot better and will be so in the future but there were positives from us as we still fronted up in the set piece and in other areas against a strong side.

“There’s definite improvement and we are going in the right direction but I’m disappointed that we conceded two tries from two set-pieces as we shouldn’t be doing that.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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