This weekend sees the return of European rugby and Gloucester find themselves back in the Challenge cup after being in the Champions Cup last year.
They face a difficult task in round one as they come-up against fellow Challenge cup new comers in Lyon. The cherry and whites currently sit sixth in the Gallagher Premiership and have only lost once in their past five matches. This current run of results could have had some influence on Skivington’s selection for their European encounter.
The big names like Louis Rees-Zammit and Adam Hastings are on holiday for a well earned break, but if Skivington was looking to make a serious dent in Europe he could’ve named a stronger squad. Earlier in the week he expressed his feelings on allowing his higher-profile players to go holiday:
“Is not a reflection of how we’re treating the tournament at all, we’re coming into a very busy period and the balance of giving other people opportunities ended up being this week to do it.”
However, looking past the absences it is actually an exciting squad and refreshing to see some different names in the starting line-up having, the likes of Stephen Varney and Giorgi Kveseladze will hopefully bring their international experience and youthful flair and ambition into the game. Billy Twelvetrees keeps his 12 shirt and is captaining the side as he is the most experienced player in that team.
Skivington seemed to be confident in his strategy to be frequently interchanging and ‘managing’ the squad to get all his players some game time:
“We’ve had quite a few different players over the last 2-weeks come in and out and that will continue to be our process throughout the year to make sure everyone’s battle hardened and game ready.”
The Achilles heel for Gloucester in this game could be the battle between the forwards because as strong as the Gloucester scrum has been this year this game is going to be a real test for depth of the cherry and whites scrum.
If Lyon field their strongest scrum it could consist of Sebastien Taofifenua, Demba Bamba, Felix Lambey, Romain Taofifenua, Dylan Cretin and Jordan Taufua.
It’s going to be a real challenge for Gloucester’s youngsters and Skivington could find his team bested by a physically bigger and more experienced Lyon side.
Feature image by Clément Bucco-Lechat
