“It’s never dull, watching Gloucester – apart from last season, when it was incredibly dull,” says Sarah Bradley, a supporter for 30 years, and a season-ticket holder in The Shed for most of those.
And with the revival has come a reconnection, between the team and its supporters.
Gloucester boss George Skivington was appointed head coach in 2020 (Photo: Getty)
Are all the problems solved? Not by a long way, with Gloucester’s 2023-24 accounts announced between the Bristol and Montpellier wins, and showing a pre-tax loss of £2.9m, and the money from the league-wide investment by CVC having run out, and the Covid-survival loan repayments to the government due to kick in this year.
But the transformation and the reconnection are real, and they are traced to an open letter to supporters written by Alex Brown, Gloucester’s chief executive and another ex-lock, last July, which came after a second successive season of finishing second bottom in the Premiership.
“We want everyone here to enjoy what they do; we believe that comes with a freedom and license to be creative.”
“People were unhappy and cross, because it wasn’t entertaining and they weren’t changing things when they were losing. And the general feeling was Skivington needs to go. But the club were very clear that they couldn’t afford to go out and get a big-name coach in.
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Read MoreSkivington’s take, when asked by The i Paper this week, is that he used last summer to “make sure we came back with an approach that was going to maximise ‘Lights’ and all the stuff we set in place”, because for various reasons last season had passed Gloucester by.
The highlight of the Bristol win was a lavish team try featuring a no-look, overhead basketball pass by Gloucester’s Wales scrum-half, Tomos Williams, who arrived with fly-half Gareth Anscombe and wing Christian Wade last summer.
Long-time supporter Rumble highlights the forwards coming through, including Freddie Thomas, Arthur Clark and Cam Jordan – nurtured by necessity, as money is tight. Of Jordan, a 25-year-old lock out of the Leicester Tigers academy, Rumble says: “He’d be more like Danny Grewcock than Steve Borthwick.
“And I really don’t like saying this, because it’s so non Gloucester, but we didn’t look in trouble at all. Everybody stuck exactly to the script, and we ran them ragged.”
But it’s the flick of the ‘Lights’ switch that dominates – Lightfoot-Brown’s determination to get the ball in the hands of the exciting Wade, Seb Atkinson, Max Llewellyn (now injured), Josh Hathaway, Santiago Carreras and the rest.
Argentina star Santiago Carreras joined Gloucester from Jaguares in 2020 (Photo: Getty)“It’s not a lucky way we’re playing,” Skivington says.
“And they’re taking them – or if we don’t take them or there’s a mistake, there’s no comeback, no fallout; the only fallout is if you haven’t worked hard enough to get in position.”
“I do recall Alex Brown banging the drum, firstly with the customary apology for our crap finish last year – sorry, our crap finish every year – but his message is turning out to be prophetic: ‘I am Phineas T Barnum, and we’re gonna entertain you,'” Rumble says.
“It’s gone from ‘Skivington out’ to you hardly hear anybody criticising anything.”
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“There was a standing joke last year of ‘are we going for a world record number of box kicks?’” she says.
“The club has been pretty honest that they’re not prepared to get into any more massive debt than is realistic. We’ve watched three clubs disappear off the face of the earth. Let’s be glad that’s not us, because it very easily could be.”
“But you’ve got this camaraderie there, all been going for years, and absolutely loving it this season. It’s just fun again. There’s no bigger high than watching tries like that being run in when you’re stood in The Shed.”
And Bradley? “I’m very cautiously optimistic, but prepared to be disappointed – and that’s the way it is, as a Gloucester supporter. In one way, it doesn’t matter where they end up – I am back in love with Gloucester rugby again.”
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