Gloucester Rugby head coach George Skivington says that top of the league Bristol Bears are playing “fantastic rugby” ahead of Monday’s Gallagher Premiership clash.
The Bears have only lost one of their last 10 games, and just three in 18 this season and they have the Gallagher Premiership title firmly in their sights with four games to play.
Eight points ahead of second-placed Exeter Chiefs, it’s been an extremely impressive campaign for the Bears, who finished third last season, eventually losing out on the title to Exeter.
Skivington – whose side narrowly lost 18-17 to Bristol earlier in the season – is full of praise for Pat Lam’s side.
“Bristol are top of the league and playing some fantastic rugby. Pat’s built a brilliant squad and put brilliant systems in place that are very hard to analyse and very difficult to play against. They’ve got some extremely high-profile players, but they’ve got more than that. Their set-pieces are extremely strong. There’s a lot of guys in that Bristol team who never get a mention, but Pat’s got the absolute best out of them, and from a coaching point of view, that’s the most impressive thing.
“If you give them an inch, they are going to take it. You have to be on your toes for 80 minutes, because they are very accomplished in every area.
“The danger with Bristol is that if you kick the ball to them, they can easily run and score a try. If you keep the ball then they’ve got a very good defensive system and you’ve got to make sure that you don’t overplay yourself. We need to find a balance somewhere in-between,” Skivington said.
Gloucester have had an underwhelming campaign, sitting 10th of 12 teams in the Premiership, however they did record a 31-7 win last weekend over Northampton Saints, with Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit registering two tries. Having defeated Newcastle Falcons in the previous game, it’s only the second time the Cherry & Whites have won back-to-back games this season.
“Lots of things went right on Saturday. There were things in the first-half that we could have done better but it was a good performance. It’s not like we’ve completed anything, we’ve just taken a step forward and executed a game plan. We’ve got a really good group and some players came in on Monday morning saying ‘we could do this better’, so it is business as usual.
“You can see what a tight-group this lot are when they’re playing together and they’re being rewarded for their hard work. We’ve had lots of performances not too dissimilar to the one last week, and we’ve been on the wrong side of the scoreline. It’s about keeping the faith and working hard. It’s absolutely great to get the reward for the hard work.
The game has been moved back to Monday, May 17 to allow a limited number of fans into Ashton Gate, with COVID regulations being relaxed.
“It’s brilliant. We can’t wait to in front of our supporters again, but hopefully there’s a pathway now to start getting stadiums full again. That’s why a lot of clubs have got together and shifted the schedule, whether it’s our stadium or yours lets just get the fans in.
“We know the crowd won’t be on our side, but we’re excited about having some noise. It’ll be very humbling to have supporters back in stadiums. We had that little time with them but it went away. I’m looking forward to feeling the passion from our supporters, but equally the hostility at other people’s stadiums is great for the players when they are walking out.”
Kick-off between Bristol Bears and Gloucester Rugby is at 19:45 on Monday, April 17 at Ashton Gate.