Gloucester enter their fifth Premier League appearance after beating Northampton Saints’ 17-game home run 25-17 at Franklins Gardens on Saturday.
Skivington said No. 8 Mercer and wing Ollie Thorley were on crutches and would be examined for a knee injury suffered during that victory. However, he has been impressed by the performances of the players around him and expects to rotate the team in the Challenge Cup.
“They haven’t lost there for over a year, so to hold them in the second half the way we did was brilliant,” he said, overseeing relief from a 90-0 defeat at Northampton in May.
“We looked at our best on both sides of the ball. We attacked really well in the first half and were really tested defensively in the second. Our character and work rate when we clashed was outstanding.
“We want a bit of balance. It’s not half attacking and half defending. But the good thing is that we’ve shown our courage and how much it means. If you don’t have something in common, you don’t fight so hard. It’s a cause and a stickiness. This is a really good group.
“It gives us a good benchmark. We knew the Saints were the ultimate test to see if we could go there and match their performance which was so impressive last season.
“It wasn’t the perfect performance we were aiming for, but there were a lot of good signs.”
