Kvesic is hoping for call after Saxons success

GLOUCESTER flanker Matt Kvesic hopes his performances on June’s England Saxons tour of South Africa have forced him into Eddie Jones’ thinking.

Kvesic was a standout performer in the two Saxons victories and with England boss Jones set to name an enlarged 45-man elite player squad as part of the new RFU/PRL deal, the 24year-old openside looks to be in pole position for a call.

“Opening up the squad gives young lads opportunities and provides Eddie with more players to look at, so, hopefully, I’m pushing to be involved,” Kvesic told The Rugby Paper.

“It was a very good tour with the Saxons. We had a good group of lads, got two excellent wins and I was reasonably happy with how I went.

“I’m my own worst critic and there are still things to work on, but hopefully a few of us have put our cases forward and it’s down to Eddie now.

“I don’t know Eddie’s thinking but last year I showed improvements around my breakdown play and the stats looked pretty good, so that’s an area of strength now.”

Kvesic’s case would be enhanced if Gloucester finally got their act together and unlocked the full potential of an undoubtedly talented squad.

He admits: “We’re disappointed with last year. We were in a really good position at one point but collapsed a bit before the end of the season.We ended up battling for sixth or seventh and then slipped down to eighth.

“The squad we have here is better than that and the supporters deserve more, but we underperformed for large parts of the year.”

Kvesic added: “We’ve got a new backs coach in Tim Taylor now and the rest of our coaches are in their third year here, so if we can add some more strings to our bow attack-wise I think we’re going to be a decent threat next season.

“This club deserves Champions Cup rugby and we’re a good enough team. First and foremost, we want to be pushing into that top six and if we can be there or thereabouts come Christmas, anything’s possible after that.”