The coach who develops Gloucester's future stars

When lock Arthur Clark made his international debut by starting for England on Saturday in their comprehensive win over the USA, it was a moment of personal pride.

But it was also a huge success for his club Gloucester.

The 23-year-old has come through the junior ranks at Hartpury College and the Cherry and Whites' academy to now having 40 games under his belt.

Next season, he will be one of 14 former academy graduates in the 40-player Gloucester senior squad.

Wayne Thompson is the man tasked with finding the next Clark, or Jonny May, or Lewis Ludlow, Louis Rees-Zammit or Freddie Thomas - players who have all come through the club's academy to establish themselves in the first team.

A former prop, who played down the M5 motorway at Bristol for 13 years, Thompson was appointed in May 2024 when the club's academy was revamped and expanded.

"The academy is one of the key strategies for the club as a whole," Thompson told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"My remit has been to help bring players through, identify players and ensure the next generation of Gloucester talent, a streamline of players coming through."

The importance of Gloucester's academy has only grown in recent years as the club aims to cut its cloth and become more financially sustainable.

Owner Martin St Quinton has said Gloucester's ambition is to financially break even and, as such, their reliance on developing young talent has only increased.

Thompson's role as head of academy has, in many ways, never been more important. Even more so in light of wholesale changes made to its structure last summer.

As part of the Professional Game Partnership agreed between the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and Rugby Players' Association announced in September, the geographical boundaries for the 10 Premiership clubs' academies were re-drawn.

With Worcester and Wasps both no longer in the top flight, the boundaries of Gloucester's patch has spread and now includes Birmingham, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and as far as Shropshire and Oxford, as well as Gloucestershire.

The setup for academies across the league has also altered and must encompass three phases - a foundation phase for age 15-16; a development phase for 17-18; and a confirmation phase, otherwise known as the senior academy, for those up to the age of 23.

"The key thing for us as a club is having an affinity with the whole catchment now," Thompson said.

"You've got a natural affinity with the local area in and around Gloucester but how do we create that cultural connection with those Midland areas, Oxford, Henley?

"The more we engage with the community and the academy, through stakeholders - schools, clubs, parents, you'll start to see that grow."

Gloucester lock Arthur Clark won his first England cap this summer

'Starting to see the fruition of work'

After hanging up his playing boots in 2013, Thompson spent 10 years working at Hartpury University as the junior academy manager, leading their under-18s programme

Rees-Zammit, former scrum-half Stephen Varney and current Gloucester winger Josh Hathaway have all prospered under Thompson's watch during that time.

"I'd always had an affiliation with Gloucester, stepping across probably has helped those links with players, and giving them playing opportunity through that Hartpury pathway," Thompson said.

"We're starting to see the fruition of that with the players stepping across and up into this Gloucester senior squad and developing in the academy."

Of the most recent crop of academy players, in the past year 12 have represented England at under-18, under-19 and under-20 age grades - most notably centre Will Knight, who featured in the recent World Rugby Under-20 Championship, while Caio James and Deian Gwynne represented Wales.

This summer, 10 players have moved up from Gloucester's under-18s team to the senior academy - six of whom have come from the new catchment area.

Yet Thompson says the real test will be how many players they have named in the England Under-20 Elite Player Pathway squad for 2025-26 when it is announced next month.

"It'll be interesting to see how many of the lads that have played in that under-19s, under-18s age group this year get pulled through," Thompson said.

"That for me is probably going to be the initial marker for us as an academy as to how far we've come in this last year and how much of an impact this bigger area and the work we've put in has shown through."

Academy winger Jack Cotgreave scored a hat-trick against Northampton in the final Premiership match of 2024-25

Director of rugby George Skivington said in May that the talent coming through Gloucester this coming season is as good, if not better, than it ever has been.

Thompson agreed he is "extremely excited" by the prospect of the players in the building although the challenge is to ensure they continue to progress forward.

"The athletic potential of these lads, it's a different size, shape of your stereotypical Gloucester lads coming through," Thompson said.

"How do we make sure that transition in the next two or three years isn't lost? And that we are seeing these lads forming the majority of the Gloucester team in four, five years."