Skivington has familiar complaints after defeat

GLOUCESTER head coach George Skivington blamed his side’s poor start and ‘butchering’ most of the chances they created for their defeat to Harlequins at a sold-out Stoop on Friday night.

The Cherry & Whites conceded two early tries to trail 14-0 and despite a combative effort from their pack, they were unable to claw back the deficit as their attack lacked any fluency.

Their tries came from their line-out drives, with number eight Ben Morgan and hooker Santiago Socino both crossing, but it was not enough to prevent Gloucester from slumping to a third successive Gallagher Premiership defeat.

Skivington, right, said: “I believe I’m saying the same thing for the third week in a row as once again we can’t fault the fight, but we’ve got to start respecting the first ten minutes of Premiership games.

“We got sucked into playing a game that we didn’t want and played right into Quins’ hands.

“They took all their opportunities but we butchered most of ours. I was happy with the way we launched our attacks, but we then tried to copy them with fancy off-loads, which didn’t pay-off.

“The second half was a brutal stalemate and a right ding-dong, and that’s what it should have been from the start with two good teams

HARLEQUINS .................. 21 GLOUCESTER RUGBY ... 12

going after each other. We rely on our decision-makers on the field, but we should have taken a kick at goal in the final minutes to get us a bonus point.”

Man of the match Danny Care scored two tries for Harlequins, with Dino Lamb also touching down for the hosts.

Harlequins: David; Murley, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Bassett; Allan, Care; Marler, Walker, Louw, Lamb,

Herbst, Kenningham, Evans, Dombrandt. Replacements: Edwards for David (80), Northmore for Bassett (60), Gjaltema for Care (80), Baxter for Marler (60), Head for Walker (80), Kerrod for Louw (60), Hammond for Lamb (60), White for Evans (80).

Scorers – Tries: Care 2, Lamb. Cons: Allan 3. Gloucester: Evans; Rees-Zammit, Harris, Twelvetrees, Morris; Carreras, Chapman; Rapava Ruskin, Socino, Balmain, Clark, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow, B Morgan. Replacements: Barton for Evans (76), Elrington for Rees-Zammit (80), Varney for Twelvetrees (54), Reeves for Socino (58), Knight for Balmain (80), Jordan for Alemanno (60), Polledri for B Morgan (80). Not Used: Singleton.

Scorers – Tries: B Morgan, Socino. Cons:

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU).

Carreras.