Rory Teague the latest coaching casualty at Gloucester?

Skills coach Rory Teague looks set to leave Gloucester Rugby –  RugbyPass has learned. This follows on from news that his cousin, Mike Teague, has decided to remove all connection between his name and the Gallagher Premiership club.

Second cousin, and former British and Irish Lion, ‘Iron’ Mike Teague dramatically cut all ties with the club, telling The Rugby Paper over the weekend that he wants nothing more to do with the Cherry and Whites. “I have said I want all the memorabilia back, murals, shirts, whatever. Anything to do with my name I want out of the club and gone.”

Prior to the appointment of George Skivington as head coach, Rory Teague (35) had been acting as de facto head coach following the exit of Johan Ackermann, who made a shock exit from Gloucester for a role in Japan. Now, having only extended his contract with the club in January, former Bordeaux Begles head coach Teague also now appears to be heading to the door.

Despite the backing of some senior players at the club, Teague was overlooked in favour of Skivington, the relatively inexperienced London Irish forwards coach, who beat off competition from 70 other applicants.

Many have speculated that Mike Teague’s angry rejection of the club is linked to the snubbing of Rory for the top job and his imminent exit, but apparently the two matters are not connected.

The younger Teague started his playing career at Kingsholm, before joining Bristol and then playing in France. He started his coaching career at Harrow School, and has gone on to work with Saracens and Wasps, England U20s and the England senior squad where he was recruited by Eddie Jones, followed by a spell as the Head Coach at Bordeaux-Begles.

Teague then re-joined Gloucester as skills coach ahead of the 2019/20 season, but it now seems that his return to the Cherry and Whites is destined to be a short one.

Should Rory leave it will be the latest in a long line of management staff to exit in recent months. The surprise exit of popular South African Ackermann was followed just 18 days later by the decision of David Humphreys, Gloucester’s director of rugby, to also walk away after six years in Gloucestershire.

Two months on, and it appears that tension between new CEO Lance Bradley and the previous coaching ticket was ultimately what set in motion the dramatic change in personnel.  Rumours circulating suggested that there hadn’t been a consensus between the coaching staff and the chief executive on the recruitment of Jonny May from Leicester Tigers.

Furthermore, RugbyPass understands that number of senior players had expressed concerns directly to Bradley about Ackermann’s coaching regime, while simultaneously championing skills coach Teague as a potential successor.

Bradley makes no bones about a soured relationship between himself and the previous coaching regime.

“As CEO, I wanted to talk to everyone. I was open and honest about who I spoke to,” Bradley told RugbyPass last week. “Management knew; there were no secret meetings. But the more people I spoke to, the more I felt things weren’t right. That’s not a rugby feeling, that’s a management feeling.

“I never want to interfere in things that aren’t my job. But when you get the information I was, you kinda have to. I asked difficult questions on the rugby side and they weren’t well received. Those questions started the process; it played out like it did.”

The board of the club appear eager to sweep the boards clean as Skivington takes the reins on a new era for the Cherry and Whites, and to remove any potential political baggage in his way.