Squad of 27 named for club’s Georgian trip into unknown

GLOUCESTER took the unusual step of naming their 27-player squad to travel to Georgia to take on Black Lion this weekend.

The squad flew out to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi at 5am this morning ahead of their first fixture of this season’s European Challenge Cup, which kicks off a 1pm UK time on Saturday.

The Cherry and Whites will not fly home until late on Sunday night, making it a five-day trip and leaving director of rugby George Skivington with a selection headache with a short turnaround to hosting Clermont Auvergne at Kingsholm the following Friday.

Historically home form has been vital to clubs progressing in the competition.

Skivington explained he has decided to balance his squad between the two games, giving the likes of his Argentinian international likes Santi Carreras and Matias Alemanno time off.

He said: “Player welfare is obviously very important and we have to look after the lads physically and mentally. Some guys have played a lot of rugby we have 21 games on the bounce before a break. So we have to sit with each individual and work out where they’re at and how many minutes they’ve played.

“Some lads have been given some time to recharge, whilst also there’s some lads in their positions hungry to take their opportunity.”

The starting XV will be named at 12pm (GMT) on Friday.

Forwards: Archie Mcarthur, Arthur Clark, Ben Donnell, Cam Jordan, Ciaran Knight, Danny Eite, Freddie Clarke, Freddie Thomas, George Mcguigan, Harry Elrington, Harry Taylor, Jamal Ford-robinson, Kirill Gotovtsev, Lewis Ludlow, Seb Blake

Backs: Alex Hearle, Charlie Chapman, George Barton, Jack Reeves, Jake Morris, Jonny May, Josh Hathaway, Louis Hillman-cooper, Max Llewellyn, Micky Young, Morgan Adderly-jones, Seb Atkinson