At this time every season I seem to be repeating the same musings when it comes to Gloucester Rugby. The Cherry and Whites will only succeed and finally start moving in the right direction if they develop a greater consistency of output.
On paper Gloucester have individuals with the ability to threaten teams, particularly in their back line but as a collective they don’t seem to click for an extended period of time. Instead they have runs of form that really showcase their capabilities before a dip occurs and that dip often veers their season totally off course.
Much has been discussed ahead of the 2016-17 season about the changes that they are making in training and around the club in order to drive the side forwards and into a winning place. According to club captain Greig Laidlaw they're focusing on being be ‘shorter, sharper, more intense and a lot more accurate’ in training. Another desire is to try and ‘drag the skill level up across the board and the understanding of the game’. This one is a big one for me as I believe that a number of times last season we saw Gloucester get themselves into a promising positions in matches but when it came to the final quarter or key pressure points then they weren't always able to think on the run and finish teams off to gain the result.
Player movement wise numerically there’s a fairly even number of ins and outs and one new entrant that we're all intrigued to see how he gets on is Matt Scott. The Scotland International is well known by his new club captain and as we’ve seen on many occasions how dynamic and inventive he is. Within the squad I’m expecting the likes of Jonny May, Matt Kvesic and Ben Morgan to have determined starts to the season as the trio look to catch the attention of Eddie Jones. As a collective the pack have to turn it up a gear because Gloucester have a talented back line, as we can see from their line up for Friday night’s opener, but if the forwards can’t take charge of sides then they’ll struggled to get the ball that they require.
Gloucester do have the luxury of kick-starting the season on home turf but when you look at the firepower that's being unleashed by Leicester both in the backs (Tuilagi, Betham, Veianu) and up front (Ayerza, Youngs, Genge, Cole) then it is going to be a challenging first outing. But, Kingsholm remains an intimidating place to travel to and it’s vital that the Cherry and Whites get under Leicester’s skin from the moment that the visitors step off the bus. This season I want to see some cool decision making under pressure from the Cherry and Whites, I want them to deliver their rugby consistently for the full season and I really want their pack to step up and be counted for.
Opening Six Matches: Leicester Tigers (H), Worcester Warriors (A), Sale Sharks (A), Newcastle Falcons (H), Bath Rugby (H), Exeter Chiefs (A).
Key Focus: Consistency, consistency and more consistency.
Ins: Tom Denton (Leinster), Josh Hohneck (Highlanders), Lewis Ludlow (Academy), Motu Matu’u (Hurricanes), Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby), Andy Symons (Worcester Warriors), Ollie Thorley (Academy), Cameron Orr (Greater Sydney Rams), Dan Thomas (Academy)
Outs: Rob Cook (released), Tom Hicks (Rotherhan Titans), Steve McColl (Yorkshire Carnegie), Dan Murphy (released), Steph Reynolds (released), Elliott Stooke (Bath Rugby), Nick Wood (released)
Player movement wise numerically there’s a fairly even number of ins and outs and one new entrant that we're all intrigued to see how he gets on is Matt Scott. The Scotland International is well known by his new club captain and as we’ve seen on many occasions how dynamic and inventive he is. Within the squad I’m expecting the likes of Jonny May, Matt Kvesic and Ben Morgan to have determined starts to the season as the trio look to catch the attention of Eddie Jones. As a collective the pack have to turn it up a gear because Gloucester have a talented back line, as we can see from their line up for Friday night’s opener, but if the forwards can’t take charge of sides then they’ll struggled to get the ball that they require.
Gloucester do have the luxury of kick-starting the season on home turf but when you look at the firepower that's being unleashed by Leicester both in the backs (Tuilagi, Betham, Veianu) and up front (Ayerza, Youngs, Genge, Cole) then it is going to be a challenging first outing. But, Kingsholm remains an intimidating place to travel to and it’s vital that the Cherry and Whites get under Leicester’s skin from the moment that the visitors step off the bus. This season I want to see some cool decision making under pressure from the Cherry and Whites, I want them to deliver their rugby consistently for the full season and I really want their pack to step up and be counted for.
Opening Six Matches: Leicester Tigers (H), Worcester Warriors (A), Sale Sharks (A), Newcastle Falcons (H), Bath Rugby (H), Exeter Chiefs (A).
Key Focus: Consistency, consistency and more consistency.
Ins: Tom Denton (Leinster), Josh Hohneck (Highlanders), Lewis Ludlow (Academy), Motu Matu’u (Hurricanes), Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby), Andy Symons (Worcester Warriors), Ollie Thorley (Academy), Cameron Orr (Greater Sydney Rams), Dan Thomas (Academy)
Outs: Rob Cook (released), Tom Hicks (Rotherhan Titans), Steve McColl (Yorkshire Carnegie), Dan Murphy (released), Steph Reynolds (released), Elliott Stooke (Bath Rugby), Nick Wood (released)
