Ben Vellacott is certain that Gloucester will be no pushovers for his Edinburgh side when they meet in the Challenge Cup on Saturday - despite the fact that the English team have lost their last nine league games in a row.
Vellacott, the capital club’s captain and scrum-half, keeps a close eye on his former team’s performances. And, while their results in the Premiership may look dismal, he believes that it would be unwise for he and his team-mates to read too much into that.
“If you look at the weekend, they just lost to Bath,” the 28-year-old said of Gloucester’s 17-10 defeat by Finn Russell’s high-flyers. “And that is a tough place to go and that is an in-form Bath team.
“You can't write anybody off in the Prem. That is an incredible league, with every team from top to bottom one of the best teams in Europe. So we can't take them lightly and they’ll be desperate to win.
“They have a soft place in my heart as I grew up there and they gave me the chance to play professional rugby when nobody else did. So I’m looking forward to playing against them at the weekend.”
Lest anyone think that Vellacott’s fondness for his old club has led him to exaggerate their threat, it should be pointed out that they have claimed victories from both of their Challenge Cup pool games to date. First they went to Georgia and won narrowly against newcomers Black Lion, and then they triumphed at home against a Clermont team who had beaten Edinburgh the week before.
Those two results have sent them to the top of Pool 3, three points clear of their hosts tomorrow, and another victory would guarantee them a place in the last 16.
Edinburgh announced on Thursday that the match at the Hive is now a 7,774 sell-out.
