George Skivington: 'Lewis Ludlow has wanted to take my head off'

Gloucester boss George Skivington has revealed how former England skipper Lewis Ludlow wants to “take my head off” after the recent double blow of being dropped and losing the Kingsholm captaincy to Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams.

Ludlow, who has captained Gloucester since 2020, has played more than 200 games for the Cherry and Whites and would expect to lead the team out against arch rivals Bath next Saturday in the Gallagher Premiership, but his fall from grace has instead left him frustrated on the sidelines.

The 30-year-old played in the opening day defeat to Saracens and then made way for young flanker Harry Taylor for the win over Bristol and last weekend’s loss to Sale which saw the west country club pick up two bonus points.

Ludlow is desperate to regain lost ground and has made this abundantly clear to Skivington, who has some tough selection calls to make with Argentina international Santiago Carreras now available to join a back line that is delivering eye-catching tries.

Half-backs Williams and Gareth Anscombe have been impressive, but the team will be without England wing Christian Wade for round four after he picked up a rib cartilage injury at Sale.

Skivington said: “Lewis has wanted to take my head off for two weeks but he has had to swallow it. We have a good relationship. He is great leader who lives and breathes Gloucester, so he would play every game if he could.

“He will be back in the team at some point and it is tough if you are captain of the club and get left out for a couple of weeks. There is no dancing around that and he has definitely been giving me daggers every time I have walked past him.

“Mondays for me are very uncomfortable and I have a long list of people I have to find and have conversations with. They are p***ed off and I’m exhausted – and that is healthy. I don’t think we had enough of that last year. The way we are going to play will test everyone and you are going to have to be on it.

“Lewis will say his Saracens game wasn’t the level I expect from him and I made the decision to go Bristol with something different. Harry backed it up and then went to Sale. Look, this season the back row is really competitive and we are now in a position where we have great competition in the back five. Lewis has all my respect and it is a tough decision to leave him out.”