Beating Bath at the Recreation Ground is “one of the biggest challenges” in European rugby, said Gloucester boss George Skivington.
The two neighbouring West Country sides meet in the Challenge Cup quarter-final on Sunday, looking for a place in the final four of the competition.
Bath are the current runaway Premiership league leaders and on the hunt for three trophies this season.
“It’s probably the biggest challenge in Premiership rugby, one of the biggest challenges in European rugby, you’re going to the top of the league in the Premiership against a star-studded team,” director of rugby Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
“I don’t think they’ll blink that they’ve lost Sam Underhill [to a ban], that shows the depth they’ve got.”
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The two sides met three weeks ago, also at the Rec, in the league, with the hosts coming away 42-26 winners, while Bath also won 55-31 in October in the reverse fixture at Kingsholm.
The Cherry and Whites were just two points off Bath at half-time in their most recent meeting on 23 March before they pulled away with two scores after the break and contained Gloucester to zero points during the second 40 minutes.
“They’re very well organised so it’s a massive challenge but we played them a couple of weeks ago,” Skivington added.
“There’s some areas we know we weren’t quite good enough and a couple of areas we let them in. Tactically we know we can be better and we can put in a better performance than we did.”
Gloucester will have Wales fly-half Gareth Anscombe back in contention for selection for Sunday for the first time since before the Six Nations, however remain without his international team-mate, centre Max Llewellyn, who is still recovering from a hamstring tear.
Lock Matias Alemanno is also facing a race to return from a shoulder injury before the end of the season and remains “nowhere near” coming back into the team, said Skivington.
‘Montpellier win a big statement’
Gloucester are aiming to reach the Challenge Cup final for the second successive season and go one step better than last year, where they were beaten by South African side Sharks to the title
They won two and lost two during this year’s group stages, but beat French Top14 side Montpellier away from home last week 24-17 to progress to the final eight.
Skivington said the win in France was a “big statement”.
“I think going over to France and winning against a big team is something that we wanted to do, we wanted to make a bit of a statement,” he said.
“It’s really exciting for some of those young lads on that squad on the weekend to go over to Montpellier and turn them over, and I thought there was ugly moments within it but the character shown and resilience from the boys was outstanding.”
Image source, Rex Features-
10 minutes ago
Beating Bath at the Recreation Ground is “one of the biggest challenges” in European rugby, said Gloucester boss George Skivington.
The two neighbouring West Country sides meet in the Challenge Cup quarter-final on Sunday, looking for a place in the final four of the competition.
Bath are the current runaway Premiership league leaders and on the hunt for three trophies this season.
“It’s probably the biggest challenge in Premiership rugby, one of the biggest challenges in European rugby, you’re going to the top of the league in the Premiership against a star-studded team,” director of rugby Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
“I don’t think they’ll blink that they’ve lost Sam Underhill [to a ban], that shows the depth they’ve got.”
The two sides met three weeks ago, also at the Rec, in the league, with the hosts coming away 42-26 winners, while Bath also won 55-31 in October in the reverse fixture at Kingsholm.
The Cherry and Whites were just two points off Bath at half-time in their most recent meeting on 23 March before they pulled away with two scores after the break and contained Gloucester to zero points during the second 40 minutes.
“They’re very well organised so it’s a massive challenge but we played them a couple of weeks ago,” Skivington added.
“There’s some areas we know we weren’t quite good enough and a couple of areas we let them in. Tactically we know we can be better and we can put in a better performance than we did.”
Gloucester will have Wales fly-half Gareth Anscombe back in contention for selection for Sunday for the first time since before the Six Nations, however remain without his international team-mate, centre Max Llewellyn, who is still recovering from a hamstring tear.
Lock Matias Alemanno is also facing a race to return from a shoulder injury before the end of the season and remains “nowhere near” coming back into the team, said Skivington.
Image source, Rex Features‘Montpellier win a big statement’
Gloucester are aiming to reach the Challenge Cup final for the second successive season and go one step better than last year, where they were beaten by South African side Sharks to the title
They won two and lost two during this year’s group stages, but beat French Top14 side Montpellier away from home last week 24-17 to progress to the final eight.
Skivington said the win in France was a “big statement”.
“I think going over to France and winning against a big team is something that we wanted to do, we wanted to make a bit of a statement,” he said.
“It’s really exciting for some of those young lads on that squad on the weekend to go over to Montpellier and turn them over, and I thought there was ugly moments within it but the character shown and resilience from the boys was outstanding.”
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