Opposition view: Gloucester were sinners in defeat at Saints

Gloucester boss George Skivington was left to rue his side's sins after they suffered a 34-20 opening-day defeat at Saints.
Ollie Thorley on the charge for GloucesterOllie Thorley on the charge for Gloucester
Ollie Thorley on the charge for Gloucester

Skivington's team were hit by two first-half yellow cards at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

And even though Gloucester were rarely out of touch, they eventually fell to a 14-point defeat.

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That left Skivington frustrated as he felt his team could have taken something from the Gallagher Premiership game, had they stayed on the right side of referee Karl Dickson.

"We gave away 12 penalties in that first half," Skivington said.

"We were doing some really good stuff, gave the penalty away and took the pressure off Saints. They took advantage of it.

"We got two yellow cards in the first half and they capitalised on it.

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"It's very hard in the Premiership when you lose two players to the sin bin.

"Away from that, I was pleased with what we did. Some of the defence looked good and the set piece was good but it's too hard in this league to give away that many penalties.

"It is disappointing because we spoke about discipline a lot in the off-season.

"It wasn't anything malicious, high shots or anything, it was more around the breakdown and the maul and over-enthusiasm.

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"It was always going to be fast and furious because it's two teams who want to play rugby, both try to play, both with good set pieces.

"We had a disallowed try in the first 10 minutes and we had one where Jonny (May) went in at the corner, but the discipline really hurt us."