My nerves are shot, admits Skivington

Gloucester cling on to one-point victory after leading by 18 with five minutes to go

GLOUCESTER Rugby head coach George Skivington was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief after the Cherry & Whites held on for a 33-32 Gallagher Premiership win against Sale Sharks having led 33-15 with only five minutes left.

The visitors ran in three late tries, but Tom Curtis missed from the touchline with the last kick of the game as the home side just held on.

Louis Rees-Zammit, in his first match since returning from this summer’s British & Irish Lions tour, scored two tries for Gloucester, with Jack Singleton and Ben Morgan also touching down, while Raffi Quirke, Arron Reed, Gus Warr, Tommy Taylor and Daniel du Preez all crossed for Sale.

Skivington, pictured, admitted: “My nerves are shot, but I’m used to those tricky finishes as we were on the wrong end of a number of them last season. We put enough into that game to be comfortable and not put ourselves into that tricky position.

“There were a couple of soft moments and some of the lads have got to do better as they clocked off in the last ten minutes, so there will be some tough conversations. At times we were really clinical and put them under a lot of pressure and the boys did enough to win, but it’s still a good learning curve for us.

“We have taken a big step forward in the first part of the season but we are still showing a bit of looseness.”

Gloucester moved up to fourth place in the Premiership as a result of their victory having now won two and lost two of their matches in the 2021/22 campaign. Sale, meanwhile, are two points worse off having won one and drawn one thus far.