'Tears up a lot of your plans': Skivington on Gloucester injury crisis

Gloucester boss George Skivington has warned the club’s fans there will be more pain before the new look backline featuring Wales international half-backs Gareth Anscombe and Tomos Williams delivers the attacking style he wants.

Gloucester finished second-from-bottom in the Gallagher Premiership and the fiercely loyal fans of the club made their frustrations known last season and an opening day 35-26 loss to Saracens highlighted the work still needing to be done.

That has been complicated by the revelation that key props Val Rapava-Ruskin and Jamal Ford-Robinson are both serious worries with Bristol Bears looming on Friday night. Rapava-Ruskin, who missed almost a year with a knee injury is now having problems with his other knee and pulled out of the Saracens game while Ford-Robinson was admitted to hospital over the weekend to twice have a throat abscess drained.

A potential loosehead prop crisis is yet another headache for Skivington who is prepared to take more flak while the new Gloucester attack takes shape and said: “There is a certain amount of pain we are willing to accept. We threw an intercept pass and they caught us out with some set-piece plays but there was plenty of good in attack and defence. There is some pain with the way we are going to play and we are going to have to roll with it and I have to accept that as well.

“This period will test our nerve playing our game and it is an exciting challenge. We have a fight every week because we are making a complete shift in what we are doing and have to show some nerve and fight. We will review after six games how well have we done.

“We can see where we want to go with our game and maybe we need to trust ourselves more. Once we had a crack and played the way we wanted to, we can score tries and there is no fear there. It is a good reminder about the defence in the Premiership and its intensity. The mood is good and getting the try bonus point helps that but we left a lot out there. There is a first block of games and it’s Bristol and then Sale and we need points from every game to stay in there and if any team knows how the Premiership can get away from you then it’s us having experienced that last season.

“Once it does get away because of the number of games then it is difficult to claw it back and we have to come out of this block of six games with a certain amount of points to be competitive this season. We cannot go within ourselves and be pragmatic because things didn’t come off against Sarries and we have worked really hard for three months on the way we want to play and if we get that firing we will be good and competitive. We have to have the guts to stick with it and push hard."

Skivington is seriously concerned about Rapava-Ruskin’s injury and he said: “Val was assessed over the last 24 hours and it is gutting to lose him just before the game and it is his other knee. We have invested a lot in Val and he is a big part of what we want to do and I have to get to the bottom of the injury. We can’t have what happened with him last year happen again because it tears up a lot of your plans. I have to make some decisions about Val and Jamal who isn’t back in the club yet.”