George Skivington acknowledges that he has changed significantly as a coach since his early days at Kingsholm as he gets ready for his 100th Premiership match as Gloucester’s manager.
When Skivington was hired as head coach of the Cherry and Whites in July 2020, he was just 37 years old and had only worked as an assistant coach for London Irish for four years.
After three years, the former London Irish lock was requested to take over as rugby director, a position that had been temporarily put on hold when he originally joined the team.
Even after a 10-game losing streak and a 39% overall Premiership victory record (W39, D1, L59) last season, Gloucester has continued to retain faith in him.
“I consider myself to be a completely different rugby director now than I was a few years ago. Since I was relatively new, I have picked up a lot of knowledge quickly. I believe that I now have a good understanding of what is and is not important,” he thought.
“We have a completely different squad setup, in my opinion. We are also a little bit further along and perhaps in a better position to handle any problems that would have caught us off guard the last time.
That wasn’t the case at Exeter last weekend when Gloucester became the first team to lose to the Chiefs in the league this season, but Skivington hopes they can quickly turn things around against Sale this Saturday.
However, injuries are beginning to take a toll. Rising prop star Afolabi Fasogbon has been out for almost three months, and two of the team’s most important ball carriers, Zach Mercer and Ollie Thorley, are gone for the season.
However, Gloucester isn’t financially stable enough to hire pricey replacements, and according to Skivington, the squad sizes have changed significantly since he began playing for the Cherry & Whites.
“I now oversee a much smaller team, and budgets and other things have changed significantly.
We were able to compete in the Premier League, Europe, and the Premier Cup a few seasons back. That is really, really hard right now, in my opinion. You must truly choose your battles and your moments. Although it would be ideal, it is not feasible to use the same team each week.
Success must come from within, according to Skivington, who coached England A against Portugal in February of last year. Going future, you’ll need to have a top-notch academy setup. Your academy must create four or five players per season to ensure that you are prepared to play if you want to be a sustainable club, which is what we are aiming for.
Gloucester’s academy was given a huge geographic territory that stretches as far north as Shropshire and as far south as Oxfordshire as a result of the loss of the Worcester Warriors and Wasps academies.
More employees were hired to take advantage of the move, and Wayne Thompson, a former Bristol prop who excelled at nurturing potential at neighboring Hartpury, joined as Head of Academy.
This season, the academy has had a total makeover, acquired a larger patch, hired a new director, and added some incredibly talented employees. Over the upcoming seasons, that must deliver,” he stated.
“For me, that’s probably the biggest change. We’ve always had a big target on growing youth here because of the way we want to run. But I think there will be a number of clubs now if you don’t get your academy right and you’re not bringing through a number of players each season, it is going to be really hard to compete.”
