Prem breaks 'tricky' for momentum - Skivington

Gloucester head coach George Skivington says it is "tricky" to build momentum at this stage of the Prem, with repeated pauses in the schedule.

The league returns on Friday after three weeks off for European Cup action, with clubs having played only two matches since January because of an eight-week break for the Six Nations Championship.

There are six rounds of the Prem remaining, but eight weeks to go until the final set of games on 6 June, meaning there will be two further week-long breaks splitting up matches.

"It's a really interesting back end to the season - we've got games, breaks, games, breaks," Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"On a logistical point of view it does allow me to get lots of planning done with Boydy [technical director Chris Boyd], with Rob [Burgess, general manager], do lots of work with the players, but it's a tricky one for momentum and we'll see that in the next couple of weeks.

"We've got two weeks then a week off, two weeks then a week off, it's pretty unusual - there's pros and cons of it."

Gloucester return with a game at neighbours Bristol on Friday, having suffered a humbling 36-17 defeat at the hands of Leicester in their last outing on 28 March.

As they were knocked out of the Challenge Cup at the group stage in January, it has meant they are the only club in the Prem who have not had any matches in the past three weeks.

Skivington said they treated their training like "pre-season".

"The first week the boys had a down week, which was scheduled," he said.

"Last week was a tough week for the boys, we definitely dug into the game [Leicester], but physically we worked really, really hard because we had that opportunity to do so.

"It was more like a pre-season-style week than anything and this week is about sharpening the game for Bristol."

Having won only two games so far in the Prem and with the prospect of a place in the play-offs long gone, securing a top eight finish in the table and Champions Cup rugby next season is the only remaining target for Gloucester.

But against the Tigers they conceded four tries to go 22-0 down in the opening quarter of the match, and Skivington said that had been an area of focus during training.

"There's things we need to be better at, but also there will be some opportunities for people in the next six weeks to get some game time and show us what they can do moving forward," Skivington said.