'They're an expectant bunch': No margin for error in Gloucester coach recruitment
Gallagher Premiership side Gloucester confirmed they would be going into a full rebuild on Tuesday when they announced that David Humphreys would be leaving his director of rugby role just 18 days after head coach Johan Ackermann also departed the club.
It is an uncertain time for professional rugby union, with the sport suffering heavy financial losses as part of the global coronavirus pandemic, something which will have significant consequences moving forward.
That either makes the Gloucester decision to clean house of Ackermann and Humphreys and start anew inspired, with a new leadership group specifically recruited to navigate the upcoming challenges, or it is an upheaval that will compound what is already set to be a testing period for the club. Both cases can be argued.
From a squad building perspective, the next few years are likely to challenge Premiership directors of rugby in a way that they have not been in recent history as new TV deals and title sponsors saw the competition increase its salary cap and clubs spend more and more money each year.
The competition is currently trying to push through permanent 25 per cent wage cuts for players and despite opposition from the Rugby Players’ Association, it is something that RugbyPass understands is likely to go ahead. This coincides with the majority of Premiership clubs backing a proposal to lower the current salary cap and end the marquee player designations.
For example, if a club is spending the full £7million salary cap on its squad, with an additional £1m spent on two marquee players, that overall figure of £8m expenditure is only going to be reduced to £6m through the proposed 25 per cent cut.
In reality, the figure would likely still lie above £6m, with players on smaller salaries not, you would assume, required to take the cut. Regardless, this would still fall short of the £5m mark that has been widely reported as the target salary cap that many clubs are pushing for.
That is not an ideal situation to go into when looking to rebuild a squad, especially with wage expectations among available players remaining relatively high and yet to adjust to the financial hole that rugby union finds itself in.
Recruitment of more expensive and higher profile players has to be perfectly nailed. With a larger cap and bigger squad sizes, the odd error in recruitment can be glossed over, but that will not be the case moving forward should the cap be cut.
Furthermore, talent identification from within a club’s own academy has to be as efficient as possible. It is those youngsters, on significantly smaller salaries, who will be required to make telling contributions to the squad at an earlier point in their careers. In short, it simply adds pressure to get everything right from day one.
Among the external candidates mentioned in connection with Gloucester to succeed Ackermann and Humphreys, a tandem of Dai Young and Rob Howley has been touted to be leading the chase for the position as stands. RugbyPass understand that Gloucester will only be looking to bring in a head coach and no director of rugby, with the previous responsibilities of the director of rugby shared between the new coach and Alex Brown, the club’s commercial director.
Whether Young might become the head coach in place of Ackermann and Howley takes charge of the attack, or the pair are both vying for the same Gloucester position, remains to be seen. Young has been out of rugby since he departed Wasps in February and while every Wasps fan owes Young a debt of gratitude for the job he did guiding the club through their battle against relegation and administration in his early seasons at the helm, there are also red flags for Gloucester to consider.
Upon moving to Coventry, Wasps were given a new lease of life in terms of their ability to recruit and Young wasted no time moulding the squad to his liking. It went well and Wasps came very close to lifting their seventh Premiership title in 2017, but the wheels then swiftly came off of the bandwagon.
The Kingsholm plot thickenshttps://t.co/7myulab5z9
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 3, 2020
Heavy recruitment year after year left the club with large swathes of player turnover each season, club stalwarts such as Elliot Daly, Danny Cipriani and Joe Simpson departed, and few players progressed from the club’s usually productive academy to regular senior representation.
Given that Premiership clubs’ ability to recruit is likely to be lessened in the upcoming seasons and reliance on academies should, in theory, increase, this could be seen as a concern. It’s not to say that Young could not prosper in that role, only that recent history at Wasps doesn’t show it to be his modus operandi.
Likewise, Howley’s recent experience is dealing with a smaller group of elite players, not having to progress annual academy intakes to the first team or having to recruit significantly and build a squad. As a coach, he has excellent credentials, but he is untested as someone who would be required to rebuild the Gloucester squad.
What, then, are the alternatives for the Cherry and Whites? It is unknown whether or not he would be available but Nick Kennedy, Saracens’ current head of recruitment, is one of the men who potentially ticks all of the boxes. He has coached at London Irish, not only leading the academy side to the Premiership U18 title but also guiding Irish back up from the Greene King IPA Championship as director of rugby.
Another seismic departure from Kingsholm https://t.co/7vvicrne4I
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 2, 2020
He is adept at developing young talent, is a savvy squad builder and has current knowledge of the recruitment market. The biggest question would be whether or not the lure of a hybrid role like that is enough to get him to walk away from Saracens where the appetising challenge is to rebuild the perennial title contender in a cap-compliant way and help reassert them as the dominant force in English rugby.
Across the Irish Sea, Stuart Lancaster, the former England head coach and current Leinster attack guru, is consistently linked with any new role that appears in English rugby. The criticism that came Lancaster’s way after the 2015 World Cup – some of it fair, the majority of it not – has largely been forgotten following his excellent work in Dublin.
Although integral to Leinster’s success, there could be a part of Lancaster that yearns to build something for himself back in his homeland. But that is far from guaranteed with the former Yorkshire Carnegie supremo enjoying a very productive relationship with Leinster boss Leo Cullen and Ireland boss Andy Farrell. With Mike Catt also involved with Ireland and Graham Rowntree onboard at Munster, England’s 2015 management quartet have all further enhanced their coaching careers in Ireland.
Both Kennedy and Lancaster would seem to be particularly good fits for Gloucester, but there has been no shortage of other names mooted for the role such as Edinburgh’s Richard Cockerill and current Gloucester assistant Rory Teague. Meanwhile, Dean Richards may not have the recent track record of bringing through youngsters, but in terms of being able to work on a smaller budget, it would be remiss not to consider the Newcastle boss as another option.
With a decision expected shortly on who takes over from Ackermann and Humphreys, it is unlikely that we will have to wait too long to see who it is the Gloucester board decide is the person to take the club forward in these unprecedented times. Just as there will be increased pressure on the candidate to nail every move they make in terms of building the squad, the exact same pressure exists on the board to make the correct call on who the person to have their hand on the tiller is. They’re an expectant bunch at Kingsholm.
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 …
30 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 Go to comments