Gloucester ready for Premiership Rugby Cup semi-final after break

Gloucester head coach George Skivington says his side are ready for the "second block" of the season after a break.

They host Exeter Chiefs on Saturday in the semi-finals of the Premiership Rugby Cup.

"Everybody had a week off, then we had a tough training week last week," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I think the week off was good for everybody, all came back in good spirits and are excited to crack on with the second block."

The group stages of the Premiership Cup seem an age ago, given there has been a World Cup final and two rounds of the Six Nations since.

But last autumn Gloucester and Exeter topped their groups and are now looking to book a place in the final. The Cherry and Whites finished top of Pool A with a perfect record of five wins from five.

The games were played over the first five weekends of the season, before the Premiership campaign got under way.

Rob Baxter's Exeter side beat London Irish 24-20 in extra time in last season's final, to lift the trophy - the defending champions won four of their pool-stage games this season to reach the knockout stages again, having used the competition for development of their young squad over the past couple of years.

The other semi-final is being contested between Championship side Ealing Trailfinders and Leicester Tigers.

While Gloucester are second-bottom in the Premiership, with just three wins from 12 games, they finished top of their European Challenge Cup pool and have a home last-16 tie with French side Castres.

Lock Cameron Jordan says, therefore, they are fighting on multiple fronts in their search for a first trophy since the 2014-15 Challenge Cup.

"We are fortunate to have got to a semi-final this weekend, and every team wants to win every cup and competition they are in, anyone who says they are not are probably lying, every team takes a semi-final seriously and we are no different."

"Exeter are a team that you know what you are going to get from them.

"They bring big line speed, big physicality, a big strong maul.

"We are looking forward to trying to match that and one-up them this weekend.

"If we can end the season with two trophies then it has definitely been a successful one."