Gloucester’s Director of Rugby Commends Youth Talent

Lock Danny Eite, who represented England in the Under-20s Six Nations and debuted for Gloucester in 2022, is among the promising players. Gloucester’s director of rugby, George Skivington, stated that the club’s young players have demonstrated “good character” during the Premiership Rugby Cup campaign thus far. The Cherry and Whites have secured two victories from their initial two group stage fixtures as they aim to defend their title from the previous season. They have also introduced 12 new players across these matches, including academy members and individuals from Hartpury University. The team is scheduled to face Exeter on Friday in their final group game, a match that will determine progression to the knock-out stages, with the Chiefs currently leading the group based on points differential. “There’s been lots of playing time opportunities for the young players so I think pretty much everybody has played rugby for Gloucester now this season, which is brilliant,” Skivington informed BBC Radio Gloucestershire. “There’s lots of good young talent coming through and they really showed good character above all else.” Skivington has been operating in a background capacity for the past few weeks, with defence coach Dom Waldouck and forwards coach Trevor Woodman managing the team. Nevertheless, he highlighted several standout displays that had captured his attention, notably featuring forwards Deian Gwynne and Caio James, England under-20s lock Danny Eite, fly-half Rory Taylor – all of whom emerged from the academy system – and centre Max Knight, who plays for Championship side Hartpury. “We know we’ve got a couple of 18-year-olds in Deian and Caio, who are really exciting,” Skivington commented. “But I think there’s a couple of guys, like Max Knight came in and he does bits and pieces with us through the season but plays for Hartpury on a weekly basis. He came in and played an scored a great try here at Kingsholm [against Cornish Pirates] and I thought he had some really good touches. [We] gave Rory Taylor an opportunity to run a couple of games. I thought his kicking off the tee was outstanding and he had some really good moments in there. Danny Eite in the Kingsholm match here, he won man of the match so I obviously wasn’t the only one, but I thought he was the stand-out performer in that game.” Gloucester has also recruited Cillian Reardon from Glasgow Warriors as their new head of performance, filling a vacancy created by Dan Tobin, who joined the England coaching set-up in October. Reardon, a former professional boxer, previously coached at Leinster before joining Glasgow in 2021. The Scottish club secured the United Rugby Championship title last season, marking their first victory in the competition since 2015. Skivington described the acquisition as a “massive coup” for the club. “It’s clear to see from his time at Leinster and Glasgow the successful impact he’s had, so it’s a testament to the programme we have running here that he wants to come on board,” he stated on the club website.