Skivington name checks 4 of his 5 Welshman and asks Gatland for a favour

Gloucester boss George Skivington hailed the impact his Welsh stars are making this season after the five players selected by Warren Gatland for the Autumn Nations Series shone in the 36-7 Premiership win over Newcastle.

Gloucester were dubbed the ‘fifth Welsh region’ this week after call-ups for scrum-half Tomos Williams, fly-half Gareth Anscombe, centre Max Llewellyn, full-back Josh Hathaway and lock Freddie Thomas, and all started in the club’s second win of the season.

Skivington’s men scored six tries against basement side Newcastle, dotting down through Jack Clement, Williams, Seb Blake, Jack Singleton, Christian Wade and Hathaway, with two further tries disallowed and a couple of others prime opportunities wasted.

Anscombe, who joined the Cherry and Whites in the summer, added six points with the boot having been given kicking duties for the first time this season and also picked up a yellow card in an eventful personal game.

He and half-back partner Williams have been pivotal in Gloucester’s transformation into one of the most dangerous attacking sides in the league, with a sixth consecutive attacking bonus point secured to sign off the opening block of Gallagher Premiership games.

Skivington said: “I thought our Welshmen were great again.

“I think Freddie Thomas particularly has been outstanding through this block. Max probably had a quieter game than he has in recent games but he was still brilliant at his moments.

“Tomos has been outstanding and, unfortunately, Gareth missed last week (with concussion) but he was in the flow as well.

“I think it’s great they’re all going off to camp. I hope they’ll feel Gatland’s intensity for a couple of games and then come back and bring a few bits with them. It’s great we’ve got those lads going there. We’d like some more going to England as well, but that will come.”

Saturday’s win took Gloucester up to fifth in the standings.

Assessing this first block of six Premiership matches, Skivington added: “I think it’s a fair return.

“I think there’s a few games we could have won. I definitely feel we’ve left three points out minimum on this journey. But I’m happy with the way the lads are playing. That’s the main thing.

“I still think we’ve got a long way to go, but I think where we sit in the table at the end of six games is good.”

Newcastle had to make do with just a consolation try for hooker Jamie Balmire, with replacement Brett Connon adding the conversion to leave director of rugby Steve Diamond dissatisfied with their efforts.

He said: “We didn’t show up in the first half. Our basics let us down and against a team like Gloucester, who have shown from day one of the season that they’re gonna run the ball, defensively we were all over the show.

“When we did get the ball we ran into touch a couple of times and didn’t respect the ball and against a side like Gloucester, the way they’re playing with the half-backs they’ve got who do control play very well, you know you can’t ask for anything other than that result.”

Newcastle’s line-out and scrum malfunctioned and folded under pressure from the hosts at Kingsholm to starve them of any platform to attack from.

Diamond added: “We may have a squad that doesn’t cost as much as the others, but that doesn’t excuse us for not being able to do our basic jobs.”