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'No one could be working any harder': George Skivington's message to worried Gloucester fans
George Skivington has admitted there has been some candid talk on the Gloucester training ground in the wake of their latest Gallagher Premiership defeat, adding that the injury to out-half Lloyd Evans could see them forced into recruiting an out-half on a short-term basis to help them in their relegation fight.
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Beaten 31-26 at Kingsholm by Northampton last Saturday, Gloucester will head to London Irish next Saturday bottom of the table on seven points, three points behind next-best Worcester after seven rounds of league action.
There has been speculation that relegation will eventually be scrapped this season and the side finishing at the bottom of the Premiership will not go down. However, rather than wait in hope for that potential safety net to arrive, new boss Skivington has been giving his players some tough love in the wake of their latest setback.
“We have certainly gone done the honest conversations route,” admitted rookie Gloucester boss Skivington. “We did some good stuff, put ourselves in a good position to go on and win the game and as I said after there was some clocking off.
“We have looked at that as a bit of growth in some of younger, less experienced guys to understand this game is an 80-minute game and in the Premiership, if you clock off it can be a seven-point costing for you which it was a couple of times for us on the weekend.”
The behind closed doors loss prompted an outpouring of criticism online but Skivington is pleading for supporters to retain patience with the process of overhauling a team he took over last June. “My message is we have stripped everything back, we have done some massive changes in the background.
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“The squad is very different from what it was previously and we are working extremely hard to pull it all together and make strides that we think will be successful and sustainable in the future. No one could be working any harder, no one could be more focused, but these things take time. Would we love it to happen tomorrow, would we love to win the games we missed out the last few weeks? Absolutely.
“In terms of a process, we are very process-driven. We knew there would be some pain to suffer. Is it fun going through the pain? No but it’s the reality of it so that is where we are at at the moment and everyone is on board and working extremely hard. Hopefully, the tide will turn and we will get a result.
“At the very beginning of this process we knew the squad looked different, we knew the coaching staff looked different, we sat down and said right, do we go for an approach where we just tick along or do we rip it up and go with the processes we believe will be successful in the long run and start getting the young Gloucester lads on the pitch at different stages and doing something that can go forward and we have chosen to do that.
“We sat as a group and said this will be painful. These things will always come with a little stone throwing and that is where you have got to be strong in what you believe is right… you know it is going to be painful. Does it make it any less painful knowing what you are doing? No, it doesn’t, it’s hard work and that’s the nature of the beast,” he said before switching to the injury concern surrounding Evans.
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He limped off with an ankle problem versus Saints and with Danny Cipriani having left the club and Adam Hastings not arriving until the summer, Skivington will be relying on centre Billy Twelvetrees switching position or having faith in Gloucester academy out-half George Barton.
“Lloyd isn’t great,” said Skivington. “He was going to see another specialist today [Tuesday]. He will be out for a period for sure. It’s not ideal for us… it’s very unfortunate timing. I don’t think it will next week or the week after (that he will be back). Right now that is where we are at (with Twelvetrees and Barton as alternatives). We will have to review do we need to bring someone else in short-term.”
Things aren't getting any easier for Gloucester. https://t.co/RtY7g1fUn9
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 30, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments