Closing trio of matches are building blocks for Skivington
GEORGE Skivington is looking for the closing three games of the current campaign to be building blocks for the 2021/22 season.
Things have not gone quite to plan for Skivington since arriving at Kingsholm, given little to no pre-season due to the Covid-19 pandemic, losing marquee fly-half Danny Cipriani after one game and never getting a minute out of his most dangerous forward Jake Polledri – all while playing in empty stadiums.
Cipriani departed in December to take a break from the game following off-field issues while Polledri has spent the last seven months rehabbing the knee he injured in the autumn playing for Italy.
Gloucester’s season has largely been one of being close, but not quite there yet.
With relegation suspended, the 2020/21 season has been a chance to strip the team back to its basic elements and rebuild the foundations.
That has taken time but with the season almost at a close and fans due to return to Kingsholm on Friday night for the visit of London Irish, the time for experimenting is coming to a close.
From now on it is about results and finishing on a high to try and kick-start next season.
Skivington said: “We are going out to win three out of three, we never accept anything less.
“I think success for us is making sure our training weeks, our games, everything we have been building nicely up to this point is hammered home over the next three weeks.
“We wouldn’t do this, but we as a group don’t want to just tick off these games and get ready for next year.
“There are still lots of work-ons and we want to tick off as many as we can by the end of the season so when we have our end-of-season review we can identify what we need to work on in pre-season.
“Let’s make sure these last three weeks of the season are proper building blocks.”
At this time last year Skivington was still London Irish’s forwards coach so there are few men outside of the club’s current set-up who have a better understanding of the Exiles.
Skivington said: “London Irish’s form this season [they sit seventh in the table] has not come as a surprise.
“There was a huge rebuilding process at the club about three years ago when they went down.
“There were hours of planning and looking at recruitment, resetting up the coaching team and support staff and now they have had three years of building on the pitch and getting their systems in place and getting the right people in place.
“It takes time but London Irish are down the road on that journey, I am sure they feel they can go further.
“I am not surprised by any particular results, they are a quality team with a lot of quality players.
“Nothing has surprised me because I have seen the hard work going on.”
The Exiles’ Wallabies lock Adam Coleman and All Blacks winger Waisake Naholo are both reported to be in contention for the trip to Kingsholm.
Gloucester second row Matias Alemanno has been handed a threegame suspension following his red card against Bristol Bears, meaning his domestic season is over.
Argentine international Alemanno was shown a red card by referee Craig Maxwell Keys for a tip tackle on Bristol captain Steven Lautau.