Skivington delighted to ‘nil’ rivals in West derby
GLOUCESTER BATH 64 0
GEORGE Skivington celebrated Gloucester Rugby’s biggestever Gallagher Premiership victory all the more because it came against West Country rivals Bath – but said there was more to come from his side.
Gloucester’s ten-try shutout win at Kingsholm eclipsed their 68-12 home success against Bath in 2002, but head coach Skivington felt his side got away with a slow start.
“We got over the line three times without scoring, but we then played some superb rugby,” he said.
“It was all the more pleasing because it was against Bath in a meeting between the two oldest rivals in the Premiership.
“What delighted me most was that we stopped them from scoring. To nil someone in the Premiership is massive and all credit to Dom Waldouck our defensive coach for the work he has put in.”
The victory took Gloucester to fifth in the table, one point behind
Northampton with two matches to play – at Harlequins and at home to Saracens, the side they face on Friday night in the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
“If you want to win something you have to play good teams,” added Skivington. “We will find out over the next three matches whether we are going to get to where we want to be, but as I have said before we are not the finished article.
“There are a few sides who are ahead of us, but what we have here is a great togetherness. We had a tough end to the match at Bristol last week and the boys responded superbly.”
Gloucester secured the try bonus point they needed before half-time. But well though they played, they faced opponents who were passive in defence, shovelled slow ball very predictably, struggled in the line-out and showed why they are the most indisciplined team in the league.
They lost two players to the sin bin in the first 20 minutes. Prop Valeriy Morozov was penalised for a high tackle on Santiago Carreras, and centre Max Clark was given ten minutes off for tripping scrum-half Charlie Chapman.
Gloucester’s pressure told when Chris Harris finished off a move started by Atkinson, although Bath then held out to the half-hour before two Louis Rees-Zammit tries in five minutes saw the hosts pull clear.
It was by now ludicrously easy for the home side. Tries either side of half-time by Carreras and Ben Morgan extinguished any faint prospect that Bath could repeat what Northampton did to them last week and come to life as they were being buried.
Tries from Atkinson, skipper Lewis Ludlow, replacement scrum-half Ben Meehan and prop Jamal FordRobinson followed before Alemanno rounded off the rout.
Gloucester: Carreras; Rees-Zammit, Harris, Atkinson, Thorley; Hastings, Chapman; Elrington, Singleton, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow, B Morgan. Replacements: Twelvetrees for Atkinson (62), Seabrook for Thorley (62), Meehan for Chapman (51), Ford-Robinson for Elrington (65), Socino for Singleton
(44), Balmain for Gotovtsev (65), Davidson for Clarke (65), Reid for Ludlow (62).
Scorers – Tries: Harris, Rees-Zammit 2, Carreras, B Morgan Atkinson, Ludlow, Meehan, Ford-Robinson, Alemanno. Cons: Hastings 7.
Sin Bin: Seabrook (65).
Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Joseph, Clark, Muir; Cipriani, B Spencer; Morozov, Dunn, Fia, Williams, Ewels, Reid, Underhill, Faletau, Bailey. Replacements: Bailey for Clark (39), Fox for B Spencer (77), Du Toit for Morozov (61), Cordwell for Dunn (61), Rae for Fia (61), Casson for Williams (68), Coetzee for Underhill (64), Butt for Bailey (40). Sin Bin: Morozov (3), Clark (12).
Referee: Christophe Ridley (RFU).