'When I came in, everyone was talking about Gloucester's inconsistency'

Gloucester head coach George Skivington praised the consistency his players are building following an impressive 27-10 Gallagher Premiership victory over Bristol.

Gloucester ended a run of five successive league defeats against Bristol as they won an intense west country derby.

A bonus-point success took Gloucester into the Premiership play-off zone, moving three points above Northampton in fourth place, but Bristol remain in the bottom three.

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“When I came in, everyone was talking about Gloucester’s inconsistency, and we showed a bit of that last season,” Skivington said.

“I think we have just started to kick forward a bit in our game and build that consistency. You have to be consistent in this league.

“That is credit to the players. They solve problems together, they stay very tight and there is no one screaming and shouting at each other when things go wrong.

“Bristol are dangerous, and there were plenty of times in that game when they put a lot of pressure on us. It was a derby game, and we came out on the right side of it.”

Gloucester’s first Premiership success against Bristol since 2018 was secured by tries from hooker Jack Singleton and centre Chris Harris, before a second-half penalty try sealed the deal and substitute scrum-half Charlie Chapman claimed a fine solo score in the final minute.

Fly-half Adam Hastings kicked a penalty and conversion, while Bristol replied through a try from their former Gloucester back Henry Purdy, while Callum Sheedy converted and kicked a penalty.

Skivington added: “I think Chris is outstanding. He’s a massive character in this group. He is a real leader.

“We took our chances tonight and we got a couple (of tries) with the maul.

“My message at half-time was I felt we hadn’t capitalised on the pressure we had put on, but Bristol are quality – they finished top of the league last season – and they made the breakdown an absolute dogfight.

“But we built some nice momentum, and we took our chances in the second half.”

Bristol now go into the Heineken Champions Cup on the back of successive league defeats against Northampton and Gloucester, and they remain a long way off the top-four pace.

Bristol rugby director Pat Lam said: “We needed to put the ball in behind them, but we didn’t do it, which is frustrating.

“We lost that game fair and square. We didn’t have enough composure.”