Gloucester boss fumes at Leicester Tigers defeat as ‘changes’ threatened
George Skivington (left) has not held back in the wake of his side's defeat to Leicester Tigers
Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington has threatened to wield the axe in the wake of his side’s 36-17 defeat to Leicester Tigers.
The Cherry and Whites were blown away in the opening stanza of the game, conceding 22 points in just 16 minutes, and despite a spirited comeback, were not able to make up the difference come full-time.
This latest defeat, Gloucester’s 10th in the league and 16th in all competitions, leaves them sat eighth in the PREM table heading into the European break, sitting just one point above fellow strugglers Harlequins in the race for an Investec Champions Cup spot.
‘There would certainly be some changes in it’
Both the defeat itself and the manner in which it came will sting the DoR looking ahead to their upcoming break, with Gloucester the only English side not involved in either the Investec Champions Cup or EPCR Challenge Cup knock-outs over the next two weekends.
Gloucester were dominated by Leicester across the park, with Skivington’s side posting just 36% territory and 49% possession across the 80 minutes. Around that, they also missed a whopping 31 tackles and tackled at just a 77% completion rate – compared to Leicester’s tally of 14 missed tackles and an 84% success rate.
Skivington’s side also made nearly 100 metres less than their opponents ball-in-hand, making 445 compared to Leicester’s 536, while also playing the vast majority of their rugby in their own half.
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And now, in the wake of the loss, Skivington has threatened to make changes to his side when they return to PREM action against Bristol Bears on Friday, 17th April.
“If I was picking a team now for next week, there would certainly be some changes in it,” he said following the defeat at Villa Park.
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“It was a disastrous first 20 minutes. There were a couple of key moments where individual players chose not to be more challenging in the tackle, and there were issues at the scrum.
“We were still cutting them open, but we dropped too many balls to capitalise.
“At half-time, I told them there was still hope, but that first 20 minutes left us with a mountain to climb, and it was an insurmountable one.”
