GLOUCESTER
GLOUCESTER
Gloucester RFC has enjoyed an exciting summer
with a number of changes having been made at the
club with a view to helping them progress. Rugby
Club Magazine caught up with their CEO Stephen
Vaughan to find out more.
Atmosphere
He told us, “The mood here is good. It’s been a time of
change but anybody that knows me knows that I enjoy
change and promote people to always look at changing
and improving things. Off the field we have made a
lot of changes but they don’t get the column inches.
Most people will know that we have changed the
coaching and playing department significantly and you
have to understand that everybody deals with change
differently.
Everybody has been first class with the changes we
have made and so far the new personnel have settled
in well and the coaches are looking forward to putting
in place a long term plan for success at the club. The
Aviva Premiership is very tough and the top clubs
have been there for a while and others are
strengthening so we are under no illusion the
size of the task ahead of us.”
72
ISSUE 01
Youth
“Youth rugby is very important for us. We have moved
from having 40 players in our academy set up in
2009-10 to 380 now. We have representative teams
from Under 13 age group and work with local clubs to
develop our players. Our Hartpury College relationship
means we have a real USP as lads can come in to
the environment, continue their studies and have the
Gloucester Rugby experience at the same time. Last
season we had 7 England representatives at Under 18
level, 4 at Under 20 and 4 with the Saxons.”
Integration
“We work hard to ensure that from an early age our
players understand the life of a professional Rugby
player. The RFU minimum criteria insist that this is the
way we go about things too. The interaction between
the first team squad and academy is also very fluid and
the coaching follows similar shape.
Strength and Conditioning, Medical, analysis and all
other support is also given, therefore it is not a stark
contrast if and when they step up to the first team
squad. Pete Buxton is our Academy Manager and he
only retired last season so he brings a lot of relevant
skill sets to the area too.”