Clash with Saints will be 'fast and furious', says Gloucester boss Skivington

The teams meet in a European Challenge Cup last-16 tie at Kingsholm, where Gloucester beat Saints 35-30 in a thrilling Gallagher Premiership game last month.

And Skivington believes it will be another action-packed tussle this weekend.

"We know Saints well and it was a tough and tight encounter last time and I expect it to be fast and furious here on Saturday night," he said.

“If you win you get some more rugby and if you lose, then you don’t.

"We didn’t produce our best last time we were here and that’s important to us whatever team we’re playing.

"We want to put our best foot forward on Saturday."

Gloucester won at Dragons last weekend to make sure of their place in the knockout stages, while Saints have dropped into the Challenge Cup from the Champions Cup.

Both sets of coaches have named their strongest possible side.

And Skivington said: “We’re got plenty of lads ready for Saturday.

"It’s a game everyone wants to be involved in and we’ve had some great performances from our young lads.

"Harry Taylor jumping in, playing against Newport, he was outstanding and had the highest work rate of any player out there. It could have been Lewis Ludlow in disguise!

“A lot of lads have put their hands up and a lot of lads have been given opportunities and taken them.”

Gloucester lost their most recent home game, to Wasps, in the Premiership.

And they will be bidding to ensure their supporters go home far happier this weekend.

“A couple of weeks ago against Wasps was a bit of an anomaly," Skivington said.

"The boys have trained really hard the last couple of weeks, and we were obviously really disappointed with the Wasps result.

"We were quite honest about it, and we feel we got what we deserved there.

“We got some good training in last week and had a good hit out against Newport.

"We know Saints are a massive threat and they’re a really good side. It’s only a couple of weeks since we played them here and it was a really good game.

"Two teams going at each other, and I think that will be the case again on Saturday.”