‘Gloucester can’t blame injuries they fell off a cliff in 2023’

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Friday 05 May 2023 06:50

Alongside coaches, players, fans and pundits, I have no idea how Gloucester fell so fast and so hard down the Premiership table. And I have no injuries as an excuse. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Alongside coaches, players, fans and pundits, I have no idea how Gloucester fell so fast and so hard down the Premiership table. And I have no injuries as an excuse.

Third after five games, seventh after eight and 10th after 19; the fall from grace was quite dramatic. And it’s not the first time the phrase same old Gloucester has come up. Are these serial jobs?

Well, first of all, players have to take some responsibility. No level of injury can excuse the team’s performance against Newcastle and Bath in recent months when the same side came close to the leaders of Exeter and Saracens to beat La Rochelle.

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Every team has injuries

Every team has injuries and although the Gloucesters list is quite long, their line has worked with their fourth-choice hooker and their scrum has been steady despite losing a plethora of props throughout the year.

They also replaced an Atkinson with an Atkinson Mark with Seb and the young gun, formerly from Worcester, stood out.

So I have no injuries as an excuse.

The team parted ways with former attacking coach Alex King and, while their game never really managed to develop and flourish under the now Welsh assistant, he did at least add some senior coaching voice in the locker room, which they lacked.

Tim Taylor is in charge at the moment, but Gloucester desperately needs a good attacking coach to help the Cherrys and Whites make the most of their electric backs.

Their maul has been uncovered and they consistently fail to ship the ball wide to use Ollie Thorley and Louis Rees-Zammit.

Gloucesters Crunch Match

Head coach George Skivington is a savvy operator. He’s brilliant, but he needs help running the club.

What if the same thing happens three years in a row? The block?

Last year the team pulled out of the play-offs at the end of the season and the club blew their top four prospects much earlier than this year.

But before that, Gloucester will wrap up their season at Bristol Bears in a crucial game on Saturday.

The Cherry and Whites need to beat their West Country rivals and hope Bath lose to secure Champions Cup rugby next year, and that’s important.

Players want to play in big games, in big stadiums, to make a name for themselves.

And there are far too many stars in the Gloucester squad for that not to happen, and that’s before we mention the arrival of reigning Top14 player of the year Zach Mercer, who joins this summer.

Gloucester have a record of one in eight Premiership wins and have only won the domestic league twice in 2023. That’s not good enough.

I used to play there and I know how much it means to the fans. They will come back again and again hoping to see their team succeed. But the club must deliver and repay that loyalty.

Somewhere else

Elsewhere in the Premiership this weekend, I back all but one home win.

Bath could do it on Saracens. The Londoners are top of the table and unassailable, and I have a feeling they will spin hard and make sure their big lads are rested for their semi-final against Northampton.

Leicester are set to wrap up a successful campaign under Richard Wigglesworth with victory against Harlequins, who have nothing to play for, while Sale are set to topple Newcastle in the so-called Battle of the North.

I would have backed London Irish to beat Exeter Chiefs this weekend, but given the turmoil at the London club over wages and their future, that might be enough to put them off.

Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of leadership development and behavior change expert Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie on Twitter and LinkedIn

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