By George Davis
Gloucester Head Coach George Skivington is being careful not to get ahead of himself after two wins out of two during preseason.
The Cherry and Whites racked up two wins over United Rugby Championship sides, as they beat Munster 33-19 and Edinburgh 21-20. But after a successful preseason last year, Skivington is determined to not repeat mistakes.
“I will be surprised if any Director of Rugby doesn’t feel like they had a decent preseason.
“We thought we had a good preseason last year so I don’t think we will get carried away with the feel-good factor until we get into some games”, said the former London Irish forward’s coach.
“We have targeted a few areas of our game; we have pushed hard on them, and I think we saw good elements of that against Munster and Edinburgh in our two preseason games.
“We also had a lot of rotation, we played 31 players on Friday night so the reality of playing 80 minutes in the Premiership will find some holes in that.
“It obviously is a bit cliche to say we take it week by week.
“I am really excited to see the work we have done out on the pitch in the Premiership, but I am also not stupid enough to say we have done some good training and felt like we have got a few things out on the pitch recently and that it will definitely transfer against Saracens and beyond.
The head coach, however, knows his team will have to be more expansive ahead of this season in order to compete higher up the table.
“I do think that is the way the game is going, if you are to conservative then you can get caught out in the end.
“It’s exciting as well, I think the boys are excited, the coaches are excited.
“We know what will come with it, it’s not going to be plain sailing straight away and I think we saw that in our preseason games where balls will go down, things will go wrong and suddenly you are defending and have got to react,” added Skivington.
“If you don’t play a bit now, it’s going to be very hard to compete in the Prem.”
And there is almost no harder team to start that transition against than Saracens, but the 41-year-old is certain that despite the outgoings of some key players, it will be a largely familiar Saracens team.
“I think losing (Owen) Farrell at any club there would be a change, but Fergus Burke they have signed is a very good player and I think when you look at their new captain Maro Itoje, it’s not exactly a drop off.”
“I think there is a slight change of dynamic, I am sure they have got some new bits they’ve got in their preseason games; you could see them pushing some slightly different angles.
“Their squad is star studded, I have gone through it thoroughly and it still has a lot of Galactico names in there of English rugby.
“We know to expect a very physical, hardworking, well organised team and that is the challenge with Saracens, they always deliver that no matter who is on the field.
“So, expect them to have a different feel but it will be the same very efficient Saracens.”