Joel Tomkins' approach leaves Gloucester's players 'nowhere to hide'

Gloucester boss George Skivington made some superb signings in the summer. Jac Morgan, the Gallagher PREM’s most impressive player this season, Dewi Lake, and Jean Kleyn are among them, but defence coach Joel Tomkins could be the best of the lot.

The Cherry and Whites travel to reigning champions Northampton Saints this weekend, top of the Gallagher PREM table after conceding only 67 points, the league’s lowest, 20 fewer than the next best, Bristol Bears, and Tomkins has played a key role.

The 39-year-old, who won three England caps during a spell with Saracens, arrival was confirmed in April, a week after his departure as head coach of Super League outfit Catalans Dragons, and immediately got to work getting back up to speed on the 15-a-side code.

“Joel’s been brilliant. He’s come in with, as you can imagine, a sort of rugby league, northern approach to defence, and he’s very straight-talking, and the lads have nowhere to wiggle and nowhere to hide.

“If someone challenges something he’s not scared of saying, are you sure about that? It’s exactly what I wanted from him. But I think we’ve seen that from everybody in their roles.

“Players, staff, and I think just an accumulation of really good people who are straight-talking, which has just shifted the dial and put everybody, I think, in the lanes they should be.

“You don’t have to spend a long time with Joel to work out he’s going to tell you what he thinks, and you’re not going to leave a conversation not understanding what he’s just told you to do.

“And I think that’s the honesty the boys have fed off that, and they want to work hard for him because they don’t, they don’t want to get called out in a meeting on Monday.

“He’s quick to compliment them as well when they’ve done good stuff. He’s quick to say that’s brilliant and that’s what we want to see. So he’s sort of building that trust nicely amongst the group,” he said.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Gloucester

4

3

1

0

16

2

Leicester

4

3

1

0

16

3

Bristol

4

3

1

0

14

4

Northampton

4

2

2

0

11

5

Saracens

4

2

2

0

11

6

Bath

4

2

2

0

11

7

Sale

4

2

2

0

9

8

Newcastle

4

1

3

0

8

9

Exeter Chiefs

4

1

3

0

8

10

Harlequins

4

1

3

0

7

Skivington admits that when he looked to replace Dom Waldouck, who took the newly created role of head of player development, he wanted to push the envelope.

“We did speak to lots of people throughout last year. The safe option would have been to go with someone with a sort of union coaching background. But I was quite clear in my mind what I needed to come in on a defensive front and what I needed around me.

“Experience teaches you what you need in a coaching group and what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are and where you might need bolstering,

“When I met Joel, I knew he ticked those boxes. I’ve got some good friends in rugby league that I trust, and they all told me he would deliver in these areas.

“He was very keen to get his head back into rugby union mode. He did nothing but study rugby union over the summer. He’s really taken to coaching rugby union, and it’s really enjoyable working with him,” he added.