Gloucester’s two-man shortlist for defence coach include World Cup-winning Springboks coach

GLOUCESTER are still looking to add another coach to George Skivington’s new-look coaching team at Kingsholm.

Last week The Rugby Paper’s Neil Fissler revealed that the Cherry and Whites were closing in on appointing Alex King, which they duly announced.

Now we understand that Skivington has got two people in mind to become the new defence coach when the Premiership returns next month.

Gloucester parted company with defence coach Jonny Bell last month. A decision which had already been taken earlier in the season in December when Bell agreed to join Glasgow Warriors after five years at Kingsholm.

Skivington is believed to be keen on former Ireland international full-back Felix Jones, who is currently working as a consultant with South Africa‘s defence staff, but is based in Europe.

Jones was rewarded with extended terms for his role in the Springboks winning the World Cup in Japan, and previously worked under Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber at Munster.

It was at Munster where Jones first stepped into coaching after retiring on medical advice in 2015 due to a second neck injury, albeit as attack coach rather than the defensive mind he now occupies within the Springboks’ set-up.

Gloucester are also interested in Newcastle Falcons coach Dom Waldouck, who is a close friend of Danny Cipriani.

The former Wasps centre agreed to terms to become player-coach at Newcastle at the beginning of the 2019-20 season, working under Dean Richards.

On his appointment in July last year, Waldouck explained: “It’s mainly the backs defence which I’m working on, and as a centre that’s my bread and butter. I’ve always enjoyed thinking about the game and the challenge of dealing with the threat posed by the opposition attack, and it’s a great opportunity to try and get those messages across from a coaching perspective.”

NEIL FISSLER