Gloucester discuss possible coaching restructure

George Skivington has been in charge at Gloucester since 2020 and was made director of rugby in 2023

George Skivington has said Gloucester are discussing a possible restructure at the top-end of their coaching staff.

Reports in recent weeks claimed the Cherry and Whites were looking at bringing in a new director of rugby, with Skivington to return to a coaching role.

Gloucester are without a win in five Prem games so far this season and Skivington said talks had been ongoing between himself, chief executive officer Alex Brown and owner Martin St Quinton over making sure everyone is working to their strengths.

"What is true is we want to enhance the programme here," Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"We want to make sure we've got a world-class programme. Myself, Browny, the owners, the board - we've had some good conversations around what we can do better.

"We all know what my strengths are and I want to make sure that I'm putting those strengths into the team and that's really important."

Skivington was appointed head coach at Gloucester in 2020 and promoted to the director of rugby role in 2023.

During his time in charge, Gloucester have yet to finish in the top four of the Prem, with fifth last year and in 2021 their best results in the table.

They reached the European Challenge Cup final in 2024 and won the Prem Rugby Cup that same season.

Skivington, who played for Leicester, Wasps and London Irish at lock, said his strengths "definitely" lie in a more hands-on coaching role.

"That's what I enjoy doing and that's what the players respond well to, that's something that when you're director of rugby can get away from you a little bit with all that goes with it," he said.

The 42-year-old said the conversations had been driven by everybody in the club's senior hierarchy.

"We haven't had the start we wanted this year, from that point of view sometimes [you've] got to step back and look at who's doing what and, again, if we want it to be the best programme it can be, you've got to be honest about that," he said.

"The conversations have been really good, really honest and hopefully we can come to a really exciting solution."

Mitchell advice has been 'brilliant'

Gloucester return to Prem action following the autumn international break with a home game against Harlequins on Saturday, having won two Prem Cup matches against Sale and Bath in the past weeks.

They have also had England head coach John Mitchell, who guided the Red Roses to Women's World Cup victory in September, working with their coaching staff in a consultancy role during that time.

Skivington reiterated that Mitchell, who has now finished in the role, has "reinforced" the work that the club has been doing.

"He hasn't torn anything up, he's helped sharpen the tools a little bit - a couple of defensive drills that have been great," Skivington said.

"I picked his brain around a couple of bits around the building, a little bit of advice here and there and he's been brilliant.

"He's very much reinforced some of the good stuff we're been doing and given us a couple of ideas of how we might do a couple of bits better."