» New head coach looks forward to the future
ATASTE of the Kingsholm atmosphere as a young player convinced George Skivington that he would like to be part of it one day.
That day arrived last Friday when he officially started work as Gloucester’s new head coach.
The 37-year-old former London Irish and Wasps lock is at the getting-toknow-you stage - assessing the squad at his disposal, working out what he needs to do to strengthen what he has and also coping with the restrictions to training due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gloucester’s players have been back in training for three weeks and can now step up to some contact work ahead of the anticipated restart to the Gallagher Premiership season on August 15.
Skivington is excited by his new challenge and is happy to have the fervent Gloucester support on his side for a change,
“I wanted to come here, first and foremost, because Gloucester is a great rugby club,” said Skivington.
“There is no getting away from the fact that when you come and play at Kingsholm as an opposition player or coach the atmosphere is electric.
“The supporters are madly passionate for their team and I think that’s a massive part of why you play the game - the buzz of people who really care about it.
“The games you remember as a player are the ones where you run out and you can hear the crowd and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
“The beauty of a club like Gloucester is that you get that every week and you don’t get that at every other rugby club as there is not necessarily the numbers or the passion and the following - it’s a different environment.
“It’s always a club that I have looked at enviously and thought I would love to be part of that somewhere down the line and now the opportunity has come along it’s good to be here,”
He has mixed memories of running out at Kingsholm - but one game especially sticks in his mind.
“I remember coming here as a youngster in the early days for me and I remember walking past the home changing room and the door was open,” he said.
“I saw Vickery and Azam in there and all those boys and I can remember thinking we were in for a hard day and we were - we got beaten and we were a decent team.
“It was always a place you came for a physical battle and it was hard graft and you end up in the changing room afterwards and you are physically and mentally exhausted but with full respect for the opposition whether you won or lost and I think that is something I remember really well - and that must be 15 years ago.
“I had a couple of good games at Kingsholm, I think I nicked two tries once but that was one of the rare occasions it went well for me.
“I wouldn’t be down for try scoring that much but you get lucky and the ball bounces your way every now and then but I’d say for the most part it was a really hard place to come and play and you always, always looked enviously at the atmosphere.”
Making Kingsholm a really hard place to come and play will be uppermost in his mind.
“The platform is there to do that,” he said. “There are a few areas I can add some value and tweak slightly and get the boys excited about slightly different ways of playing and bits and pieces where their strengths have laid elsewhere over the last few years.
“That’s not to take away the strengths that the boys have worked on and built which have been a massive part of Gloucester’s game over the past few years.”
High up in those strengths is the riches available to him in Gloucester’s back line.
Despite the departure of Tom Marshall to Japan, he can still call on the returning Jonny May, Wales’ rising star Louis Rees-zammit, Mark Atkinson and Billy Twelvetrees in the centre, the mercurial Danny Cipriani - and let’s not forget club stalwarts Henry Trinder and Charlie Sharples.
“It’s very exciting,” he said, “There is a real strength in the way Gloucester have played attacking rugby and so we say let’s strengthen up a few areas around the game while letting those players express themselves, get out there and attack it and not have any pressure that if there is a mistake they are going to be hung out to dry because that’s won’t be the case.
“There are times when you have to play a slightly more conservative way or make a smart decision but those guys are good players.
“I would be a fool to come in here and try to make them play a different way as they are blessed with skills and the idea is that I just guide them a little bit and try to make it fun for them and make an environment where they can be free to play rugby.”
As an ex-lock forward, Skivington’s main area of expertise will be in the pack - and it is there where he will be focussing his recruitment efforts, having lost World Cup-winning lock
Franco Mostert and fellow South African, prop Franco Marais, to Japan - and also Gerbrandt Grobler to Stade Francais.
“Those guys have left a hole in the pack,” he admitted. “They had played nearly every game so they were good, durable players of a high calibre.
“We need to recruit a few more players up front and once I get a feel for the squad, the personalities, the make-up of it, the leaders within that, then it will be a lot easier to make those decisions.
“There are positions where we are down on numbers and we are looking at that as we speak but a lot of it will take a bit of time as I don’t know players and their roles within the squad.
“I have had some good conversations with Ed Slater and a few others and I think they are excited about a few tweaks we can make and put some emphasis on some different areas from a forwards’ points of view.
“That’s not going to happen overnight by any means - we will have lots of conversations, and put plans in place then once the training can build up we can start to implement it bit by bit then hopefully slowly over time we can make those changes.
“We have to find the balance of who does what and how they can contribute but in the coming months we will bring a few people in.
“Lock and prop are the obvious areas we are a couple of numbers down in.”
But Skivington’s first priority is getting to grips with the restrictions in training - including a 73-page document from Premiership Rugby which details all the dos and don’ts.
“It’s going to be a slow process,” he said. “There are lots of good things here and good people and my job is to feel out what is working well and what I
It’s always a club that I have looked at enviously and thought I would love to be part of that somewhere down the line and now the opportunity has come along it’s good to be here
George Skivington
would like to tweak over time.
“It would be wrong to walk in and say this is how I see it, this is how it should be as I haven’t got a feel for the playing group yet and for the other coaches so I am quite a privileged position that I have come in, eyes wide open and no pre-conceptions on anything.
“We are putting the training plan together for the next couple of weeks which has its own challenges but it is giving me a good opportunity to see what everyone is about.
“On the fitness side, the lads have been working hard for the past three weeks or so.
“They have got a good fitness and strength level away from the game but rugby fitness is a very different thing.
“You have got to take a few bangs and get up of the floor while wrestling with someone and those things you can only get in the lungs through intense rugby training and with the parameters the PRL have set contact time is limited.
“If you are near each other for a certain amount of time you have got to split up, stay away, wash your hands there are a lot of guidelines and a lot of hard work going on among the coaches and the staff to make sure we get all that
right as well as getting the boys ready.
“It’s a massively complex process. Preparing training and all the rest of it takes a lot of time under normal circumstances.
“In this circumstance a lot more time goes into it and we want to get it right.”
The players started contact training on Wednesday as things step up towards a playing return.
“We have our parameters, we are allowed 20 people in a group at the moment so the balance of getting it right is a tricky bit,” said Skivington.
“We will be gradually building it back in as no one has had those collisions for four months so we will build that up in small groups and work on small-sided skills.
“It will be a slightly different take but we will get back to as normal rugbytype sessions as we can but trying to cover bases and get their bodies ready to play again.
“That comes with a bit of collision work and getting yourselves in those awkward positions that make rugby.
“We are all hoping in a fortnight’s time there will be another PRL meeting and some updates and hopefully everyone has looked after themselves and
things are progressing and you’d like to think we could take that step.
“There’s no certainty with any of this, we are working with parameters we have got for the next fortnight.
“I like to think once we get out of this we will all have a greater appreciation for what we do and how lucky we are to be in the game.
“Once we get playing again at Kingsholm in front of a crowd and getting stuck in there will be a whole new appreciation of that on another level that we haven’t had for a long time because these are unprecedented times.”
When rugby does restart, Gloucester sit ninth in the Premiership with four wins for 13 games - a disappointing return after the previous campaign saw the Cherry and Whites finish third.
“I have watched all of the games,” said Skivington.
“I think there was a bit of disjointedness and maybe lots of good players working hard but just a couple of bits that could be connected up better.
“Also an understanding of when to push the button and when not to, but you have got appreciate the skill set you have in the squad.
“On the flip side you have to appreciate sometimes there is a need to do something maybe a little more conservative or put the energy into something different. It can’t be one way the whole time as teams will work you out.
“I am sure Gloucester would like to have won more games but one thing I do know is that the boys are mad keen and really excited and everyone will be pulling in the same direction.
“There are nine games to go and my aim is that by the end of them me and the other coaches have a good feel for what we are working with and I understand my squad inside and out.
“I want to know who is really going to drive the programme forward and who is going to be supporting that and hopefully everyone is going to be a part of that. That is my first objective.
“From a personal note I want to understand Gloucester Rugby inside out - the supporters, the history.
“I know it’s great but I am not from round here, so I want to understand what’s going on here and to make sure I understand the community and all the rest of it. Those are my immediate goals.”