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Gloucester set to name George Skivington as new head coach

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Gloucester Rugby look set to name George Skivington as their new head coach, bringing to an end their search to replace Japan bound Johan Ackermann, RugbyPass understands.

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A former captain of London Irish, the 37-year-old retired in the summer of 2016 before being named forwards coach. Although at the start of his coaching career, Skivington is highly rated within coaching circles and joins Gloucester after a successful stint under Nick Kennedy and latterly Less Kiss and Declan Kidney at the Exiles.

His first significant coaching experience came while still playing, when he acted as an assistant coach at Ealing Trailfinders from 2014 to 2016. Ealing gained promotion from National League 1 in 2014/15 and went on to enjoy a strong campaign in the championship the following season.

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Billy Whizz at his blinding best in 2003.

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Billy Whizz at his blinding best in 2003.

Skivington still has a year to run on his contract at Irish, and RugbyPass understands that Cherry and Whites will be compensating their rivals to avail of his services heading into the latter half of the year.

The capture of Skivington is timely. Gloucester have undergone significant upheaval in the last three months, with the departure of Ackermann and their long-standing Director of Rugby, David Humphreys, and there has been significant speculation over who would take up the role.

They had been linked with former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and former Leicester Tigers and current Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill, although the latter had ruled himself out of the running early doors.

Cheika was said to have been high Gloucester’s list of targets, with the club indicating that they were hopeful of announcing new appointments in early July. However, Cheika distanced himself from the gig over the weekend, saying: “I haven’t had anything to do with them.”

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Skivington made 62 appearances for London Irish in total after stints with Saracens, Wasps and Leicester Tigers. He successfully led the 2010 England Saxons team to Churchill Cup success and was called up to the 2011 England Six Nations squad as injury cover for Courtney Lawes.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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