Glaws start vital four-game run

Coach Bryan Redpath says the next four games are enormous Gloucester return to Premiership rugby, and hopefully the players will agree as they prepare for the opener in that series against Northampton at Kingsholm on Saturday.

There’s plenty of hot air in the build-up to most Premiership games nowadays, and this one is no exception at Glaws go for revenge after a narrow 26-24 defeat at Franklin’s Gardens in September.

The excessive hot air comes from the blowers which have arrived at Kingsholm to try to keep the pitch in good nick during the frosts which are forecast for the area between now and Saturday afternoon.

Redpath says the next four games are big ones, but of course he will agree that they all are between now and the end of the season as Glaws attempt to banish their inconsistency and climb up the table aiming for a top four finish.

The Saints game is followed by the derby return at Bath, a home clash with Harlequins and a visit to Leicester Tigers. If Glaws go into the following game, at home to Exeter on March 24, without a good return from those four games, they can forget the top four.

They go into the Saints game with the bonus of a return to the squad for Charlie Sharples, released during the weekend from England duties. The bad news, though, is that it has now been confirmed that flanker Alasdair Strokosch is leaving after five season to join French side Perpignan.

And he could be followed out of the Kingsholm door at the end of the season by fellow Scots Rory and Scott Lawson, who are both being linked with new clubs either side of the border.

But for now Redpath has to concentrate on the big four games coming up