Young Guns: Gloucester fly-half and full-back Josh Hathaway
Having recently been lured to Gloucester by head coach George Skivington, playmaker Josh Hathaway made his Premiership Cup debut last weekend after recently joining the club from the Scarlets.
Hathaway, 19, is another rugby player off the Hartpury College conveyer belt and says watching games at the nearby Kingsholm and embracing the Shed swayed his decision to join the Cherry and Whites earlier this month.
He said: “Scarlets was my childhood club, I'd always go down to watch games there and knew some of the players already before going into training. I really enjoyed my time as they were always good with me. When I went to Hartpury, Scarlets were as supportive as they could be.
“But during my time at Hartpury, I'd watch games at Kingsholm and that made me sway my decision. I had a couple chats with Skivs (George Skivington) and that really made me turn my head and want to play here.”
The fly-half/full-back made his debut in last Saturday's 38-31 victory over Bristol Bears that booked Gloucester's place in the semi-finals. A bumper crowd of almost 10,000 were in attendance and Hathaway described it as a dream come true.
He said: “My first game last weekend was unreal running out to face the Shed and the Malvern Tyres stand being packed out made it surreal. It was always a dream of mine to play here through Hartpury after watching live games.
“Hopefully there's more games to come over the next few months. The Prem Cup semi-finals and final are coming up as the boys did really well to put us in that position before I came in.”
Hathaway is learning off Gloucester's plethora of backline talent that he describes as second to none.
He added: “You're coming into training and you're trying to build off all the international stars. You see what they do in training or in the gym and you're trying to copy them and follow in their footsteps. The talent around me is unbeatable anywhere else and it's really good to be around them.”
Hathaway made his Wales U20s debut earlier this year in the Six Nations and after missing out on earlier age grade honours due to timing more than anything else, he was delighted to win his first international cap.
He said: “I was unfortunate that they cancelled the Wales U16s the year before me and I missed out on the U18s due to Covid. So, it was unreal to get my first cap in February. I've got another year of U20s this season, so hopefully I can get more game time with them.
“I want to keep playing in the Prem Cup getting some game time, training hard and maintaining status within the first team.” Hathaway was a sporty child, playing football, et, tennis and swimming as well and believes this helped to develop his speed and footw ork.
“Playing different sports has made me light on my feet. I've tried to develop that further by up to the likes of Louis Rees-Zammit and Ollie Thorley at Gloucester, and since joining the club it's progressed crick- as rugby, He said: looking since.”
