Gloucester 54 Newcastle 14
George Skivington was quick to focus on the “big occasion” that lies ahead at the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club for Gloucester after they regained some pride with a crushing defeat of Newcastle Falcons.
The win will be a much-needed confidence boost for Gloucester as they now prepare for the European Challenge Cup final against South African side Sharks.
Skivington, criticised for his team selection in last week’s 90-0 thrashing at the hands of Northampton, was able to smile this time following an eight-try rout of the Premiership’s bottom side.
The victory condemned Falcons to an 18th successive loss for the Premiership season – joining the likes of Rotherham (2004) and London Welsh (2015) who are the other two teams to fail to win a single game.
Skivington, however, is dreaming of lifting a trophy in North London. He insisted: “Sharks will be a strong team. This is a proper team we will be playing at a proper Final and they will be hard to beat. It’s going to be a big occasion for all the guys and once I find out how all the players are I will need to sit down and decide on the team for it.
“This was out last game of the season so it was important to leave on a high. We haven’t delivered the league campaign we wanted butwe wanted to go out by playing some good rugby and scoring a few tries.
“Last week wasn’t acceptable but the guys had the benefit of having a week off and they took it all on board and executed it very well today.”
Zach Mercer, Chris Harris, Charlie Atkinson and Ollie Thorley crossed for the hosts who picked up a try bonus point before half time and led 26-14 at half-time with hooker Jamie Blamier and centre Matias Moroni grabbing the Falcons tries.
Further scores from Seb Blake, Jonny May, Alex Hearle and Josh Hathaway condemned Newcastle to more misery on the field.
May received the loudest cheer for a try on what is expected to be his final home appearance for the club.
Skivington had a special word for England wing Jonny May who is leaving the club and likely to head to France for his final playing farewell as the age of 34.
He insisted: “It was testament to Jonny to sign off with a try. It’s sad and emotional he has played his last game but he has been an outstanding servant for the club.”
Steve Diamond,Falcons consultant and Director of Rugby, realises he has a massive job ahead this summer to transform a team which he admits has been left “demoralised”.
“We looked like rabbits in the headlights again,” he said.“Gloucester turned up on form. They took a bit of grief last week for the team they put out and were warming up for their big European final.
“The lads will have a few weeks off but the hard work starts for me right now. The recruitment here has not been good for various reasons. You can bring one or two from the Championship to the Premiership and survive with them. But if you bring them en masse you can’t You become a Championship team. And the results we have had we’ve become exactly that.
”You can’t take a team as demoralised as this and make it a top-four team immediately. But what we can do is get off the bottom of the league next time.”
Match details
Scoring sequence 5-0 (Mercer try), 7-0 (Englefield con), 12-0 (Harris try) 14-0 (Englefield con), 19-0 (C Atkinson try), 21-0 (Englefield con), 21 -5 (Blamire try), 21-7 (Connon con), 26-7 (Thorley try), 26-12 (Moroni try), 26-14 (Englefiield con); half-time; 31-14 (Blake try), 33-14 (Englefield con), 38-14 (May try), 40-14 (Englefield con), 45-14 (Hearle try), 47-14 (Varney con), 52-14 (Hathaway try), 54-14 (Varney con).
Gloucester J Hathaway; J May, C Harris, S Atkinson, O Thorley (A Hearle, 52); C Atkinson, C Englefield (S Varney, 60); J Ford-Robinson (M Vivas, 50), S Blake (S Socino, 60), K Gotovtsev (C Knight, 50); F Clarke (J Morris, 77), F Thomas (A Tuisue, 63); R Ackermann, L Ludlow (c) (J Clement, 50), Z Mercer.
Newcastle L Brown; A Radwan, M Moroni (O Spencer, 67), C Hutchison, B Redshaw; B Connon (R Jennings, 52), S Stuart (J Elliott, 52); A Brocklebank (M Dormer, 75), J Blamire (B Byrne, 60), E Bello (R Palframan, 48); T Cardall, J Hawkins (A Scott, 69); S Cross, G Pepper, C Chick (c) (F Lockwood, 60).
Sin bin Tim Cardall (72)
Referee Sara Cox. Attendance 11,503
