David Humpreys (Gloucester Rugby)

David proved to be a very open honest and personable Irishman who gave a very good account of himself and the difficulties and disappointments of Gloucester rugby.

He always had enthusiasm for the game and started playing in the amateur days with University rugby before joining London Irish with Clive Woodward and then Ulster. He had 72 caps for Ireland and was with Ulster when they achieved the record of qualifying 6 years in a row for the European Cup. After he retired from rugby he expected to return to work as a lawyer when Ulster offered him a management role.

Then in 2014 he was surprised to receive a call from Stephen Vaughan, Gloucester CEO inviting him to be Director of Rugby.  David is clear that Gloucester are in a much better place than they were 3 years ago, obviously the main problem being winning sufficient games! The investment in the Academy has been immense and this is where he sees Gloucester’s strength. Being able to invest up to the wage cap is fine but marquee players are enticed by unlimited funds spent on them by the richest clubs. Gloucester spend 8 million with an average of £200,000 wage.

David’s main targets are cohesion and stability in the team and to keep players we need to develop and then keep the Academy players through the years. Our immediate target is to rapidly bolster the scrum and maul via new recruiting. Johan Ackermann has been involved with a very successful Lions team in South Africa and having visited Gloucester twice pre-season has put in place the training programme. David talked of the great frustration in the break down of the transfer to Gloucester of Carl Fearns and the transfer from Gloucester of Johnny May both events only possible by the money available at other clubs.

David received many questions and dealt with them openly and intelligently - the future of Ross Moriarty possibly in Wales where the Welsh RFU could part fund his salary
multiple Box Kicking – a recurrent discussion where statistics show Gloucester and other teams win more when they kick more.
inadequate substitutions – Forwards do run out of puff and the players need playing experience but the subs need to be higher quality

The lack of sufficient leadership amongst the squad – very much agreed with by David and a problem that may be resolved by the arrival of Owen Williams and Ed Slater.
Ultimately Gloucester are not far from success and if we start to improve players will stay and the stability and cohesion we strive for will develop

I think after David’s excellent talk most of us felt much more positive about the forthcoming season. We shall see on Friday - come on Glaws!!!!

Bob Paterson