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George Skivington: The Zach Mercer 'ability you couldn’t coach'
Gloucester boss George Skivington has insisted he isn’t uncomfortable about fielding so many questions recently about Zach Mercer, the Gallagher Premiership club’s on-song No8.
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The Top 14 player of the year for 2001/22 when he helped to propel Montpellier to first-time, top-tier glory, the script was for the 26-year-old to come back across the Channel and go straight into Eddie Jones’ England team for Rugby World Cup 2023.
The problem was that Jones got the sack before Mercer arrived at work at Kingsholm and Steve Borthwick, who took over the England job, decided to go a different way with Ben Early since emerging as the Test team’s No8 after Billy Vunipola’s attempt to reclaim the shirt petered out at the World Cup.
Skivington, who coached the revived England A team in their late February rout of a Portuguese development side at Leicester, believes in-form Mercer is still a potential Borthwick pick for the upcoming summer tour to Japan and New Zealand despite his ongoing out-of-favour situation.
Mercer produced a player of the match performance last Friday to help Gloucester win away to Leicester for the first time in 16 and a half years and it left Skivington fielding multiple questions post-game and in the run-up to this Saturday’s home derby versus Bristol about the back row’s Test selection situation.
That interest is at the expense of queries about numerous other players who are playing very well in his rejuvenated team. To an outsider, it could be conceived that Gloucester are a one-man team but Skivington doesn’t mind the added attention that Mercer attracts.
Asked by RugbyPass about Mercer currently hogging the media limelight by being at the heart of so many questions about Gloucester, Skivington said: “That’s very true, we have got a lot of players playing really well… but I understand.
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“Zach is a very unique player and obviously everyone thought he was going to go to the World Cup and then he didn’t, everyone thought he was going to do Six Nations, and so there is always going to be a lot of focus on him and rightfully so. He is a class player and everyone wants him to push through, which is great.
“I’m happy answering whatever questions get thrown about whoever but we all understand someone like Zach, with the hype when he was coming back and that, there was always going to be a lot of attention and that’s the way it goes.
“But internally we recognise everybody and Zach is definitely recognized, but we have our own Monday meetings with the highlights reel and conversations and internally everybody knows all their work is recognised and the Gloucester supporters are brilliant, to be fair.
“The Gloucester supporters love someone like Zach as much as they love someone who quietly doesn’t get mentioned but goes about their work. It’s part and parcel of it, but there are a lot of lads working really hard and want to do something here.”
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This description of Mercer as unique, can the Gloucester coach elaborate on the No8’s special point of difference? “The way he carries the ball. You certainly couldn’t train it, you couldn’t coach it,” enthused Skivington.
“The responsibility of a coaching team is to put him in the right position and make sure everybody gets the ball to him as much as possible, but once he has got the ball he is given a license to do what he does and everybody feeds off that.
“His footwork and his ability to slide through a line, I don’t think many people could do that and you certainly couldn’t mimic it. So from that point of view, he is very, very unique.
“All we can do and our responsibility is to make sure he is in the right positions within a structure and the boys know how to get the ball to him and maybe use him as a decoy at times as well. He is very unique. He has ball-carrying ability you couldn’t coach.”
Back to the other Gloucester players playing at the top of their game. Would Skivington care to mention some of the standouts other than Mercer? “We have got a lot of players playing really well here at Gloucester and our back row with Ruan (Ackermann), Jack (Clement) and Lewis (Ludlow), everyone has been going extremely well.
“We have some young centres in Seb Atkinson and Max Llewellyn who were outstanding on Friday night. Seb Blake (the hooker) has got mentioned. Genuinely some of our props, Jamal Ford-Robinson has been outstanding this season, so there are lots of good things going on.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
31 Go to comments