That’s the benchmark: George

GEORGE Skivington has challenged his players to reach the levels they did at Franklin’s Gardens every week from now on.

The Cherry and Whites put in their best performance of the season on Saturday to win 31-7 against Northampton Saints and close the gap on a top-eight Heineken Champions Cup qualifying spot to just three points, with ninthplaced Wasps and eighth-placed Leicester both losing.

Head coach Skivington now wants the bonus point win to be the benchmark for his side.

He said: “It is five points in the right direction but there are lots of things that will go on in the league from now until the end of the season in the last four games that we can’t control.

“All we can control is making sure that we use the game to learn from, correct a few bits which we can do better, and understand why we were effective against Saints.”

Gloucester crossed the line four times, twice through Louis Rees-zammit and once through Ed Slater and Jack Singleton, while Billy Twelvetrees kicked 11 points.

Skivington continued: “The challenge now is to turn up like that and execute every week.

“It is not going to be perfect every week but I think we are getting there.

“We have been building all season. When all the systems come together it looks pretty decent but the test is when you are under the pump to be able to get back to those systems as a default.”

Gloucester will have to be at their best to get the better of the Bears - who have had the bragging rights in ‘The Rifles Cup’ - the historic trophy the sides play for when they meet winning the last four league meetings.

But the Cherry and Whites pushed the Bears as closely as any side this season when they met at Kingsholm on February 12, losing 18-17.

» Team news will be released on Sunday at midday, check out the Gloucestershire Live website for the latest build-up.