THIS week, Gloucester Rugby owner Ryan Walkinshaw, chairman David McKnight, head coach Bryan Redpath and his assistant Carl Hogg faced the Cherry and Whites' faithful. Here in the second part of our report on the meeting, they answer questions on kicking, Twitter, bar prices and the forthcoming season.
Question: Do we have a kicking coach at the club?
Bryan Redpath: Jon Callard came in last year and worked with Nicky (Robinson), Freddie (Burns) and Timmy (Taylor) and I think it is a massive challenge.
Nicky was really desperate to succeed in that he was second-choice kicker at Cardiff and came into that challenge of kicking for goal.
Being a goal-kicker is the easy part, dealing with the mental element of it is the difficult part.
The most consistent in training is Tim Taylor.
We knew we scored enough tries but didn't take enough of the three, six, nine-pointers that would have won us four or five games which could have seen a different season.
Jon comes in generally every week, but the mentality side of it is a challenge for Freddie and Timmy this year.
I believe we can make them better under pressure. Kicking in training is a more comfort zone area.
We need to be out there doing it every single week and having the confidence to do it.
Jon Callard has been in touch, asking when we can start, when they are physically in good nick again to kick.
Ryan Mills is another we can pull into that .
We are looking to try and address it and create some confidence along the way.
It is very easy to say you are rubbish and bring someone else in, but goal-kickers are very few and far between and generally come with a big pay cheque.
Q: What are the three things you are looking to achieve in pre-season and the season overall?
Carl Hogg: In pre-season we are going to be fit and we are going to work really hard.
The game now is multi-phases and we have got to be really fit, we have got to get a game understanding up to speed by the end of August so everybody is on the same page.
We don't have that many people coming in, but there are some positives in that we need to evolve some of our game. But we have got a solid group of players that understand it and know it.
The third thing is we need to develop this culture, we need to develop the will and belief to play for this club.
In the past, and other environments, you have had individuals that have said: 'If I play well I will get picked for so and so.'
It is not about that, but it is about performing well for Gloucester and that is a key thing we will drive in pre-season.
BR: Last year, myself and Hoggy believed we could win the Premiership and I remember sitting in front of the players and saying that.
I said that to Ken (Nottage) and he fell off his high chair and laughed at me.
But that was something we believed we could achieve last year and we were not far off that.
Now the challenge is tough next season because of World Cups and what kind of state your players come back in physically and mentally – hence why some of the youth is going to get promoted through pre season.
The first challenge is always Heineken Cup rugby – you have to get in that top six.
The second thing is this place is precious, Kingsholm, we never want to lose a game at Kingsholm.
Eighteen games last year, we lose one: La Rochelle. We should never had lost that game, we should never lose at Kingsholm.
The third challenge is to play away from Kingsholm. It is not for me to say, 'Yes we are going to win the Premiership, Heineken, the LV.'
There are many ways of how we get the icing on the cake at the end.
We need to be mentally stronger, we have been frail mentally weak and nervous and jumped off script a little bit.
So that is a real challenge for me and Carl to delve into that and be a more competitive side.
We had 18 games away from home and we lost ten and draw one and won seven.
But we lost to Leeds, Sale, Newcastle and Exeter and at one stage that was the bottom four in the Premiership.
That is not good enough and that is a real mental problem we have to overcome.
Playing here in front of you guys, there is fear factor and embarrassment factor and they don't want to lose.
On a general term for me and Carl, we have talked when we walk up there as coaches.
We don't want to let anyone down as coaches, we want to make sure our pre-match talk is right, our half-time talk is right, our guidance during the match is right.
But we must master the area on how we win away from home.
Winning at Wasps on a ugly wet day was very satisfactory.
Winning at Northampton was massive and it's irrelevant how you play or how attractive it looks.
Of course we are here to try and win the Premiership, but to do that, it is an 11-month cycle.
CH: We have got a few monkeys off our back. We won at Northampton and Bath and got a draw at Leicester – places we have gone in the past and struggled to deliver.
We have gone to cup finals and have not performed.
We were a bit nervous up at Franklin's Gardens, but in the second half we won a cup, so there should be an element of belief filtering though that we can go places and deliver and not just bank on home wins.
The Sales, the Newcastles and Leeds away – we have go to get those right.
That is mental inconsistency, not ability, and that is putting pressure on players to deliver and that is something we talked about.
If is a Bath then you are in the right frame of mind, it is really easy because of all the rivalry goes with it.
We go to Leeds, a team we supposedly should beat.
That is challenge for an individual to go out and perform whether it is a Headingley or Kingsholm – it is the same game and the same challenge mentally.
Ken Nottage: What do we think about Twitter and will players be banned or banned from tweeting?
CH: I don't tweet and I don't use Facebook, I am not a big believer in it.
BR: We are Scottish, we haven't got that yet! We have had some issues with it throughout the season, or parts of it.
The players just have to be very smart. I would never ban anyone from it, but I don't want any of the rugby environment stuff getting discussed on it.
There are things in our environment that are very challenging and may be disrespectful if you give someone a hard time.
Some of the language two well-educated Scotsman give them on Saturday afternoon is not something we will be discussing on Twitter or Facebook.
If there is an injury or any work information put on it, the players know they have been given a statement by the club in their one-on-one meetings that anything that is work related that should not be on there, does not go on there.
What they do in their own time, I have no issues with.
I don't necessarily want to speak to them out of work but on general terms there is a level of confidentiality about what goes on in physiotherapy and conditioning and game plans and disappointment.
Now we can't stop people from saying they are disappointed for not being selected, but you have just got be careful.
If it goes bigger than the club, it is not a club issue.
A club would not be held accountable by something an individual says on there.
It is a personal choice to use it, we don't have a huge issue with it as long as it does not relate to Gloucester Rugby club.
Ryan Walkinshaw: I was on Twitter before I was more in the public eye and I have been on Facebook since the beginning because it is a useful tool when you move around.
I have said one thing about refs I should not have said and I will put that down to emotions, but that was a mistake and I have learned from it.
But more and more I have found people are following me.
I said something after the races in Australia about me having to move down there for a couple of months and suddenly it was saying, 'Walkinshaw eyes move down under', and a whole bunch of ridiculous nonsense about me looking for a house down there and lot of things do get twisted For me it is a nice way to keep in touch with the boys, it helps my relationship with some of the guys, I think it helps develop it.
Twitter and Facebook are key features of young society now and it is going to get more important.
Everyone has the right to their opinions and I think most of the players on there – except the more outspoken ones – use it to talk about Buxton burgers or Geordie Shore.
I think Nando's is the hottest topic, which is not dangerous.
I think it is something very good for the fans. It allows everyone to see what they are doing and it means you feel like you have a relationship you are not going to see.
Q: Will the shirts keep the hoops?
RW: I have been involved in the new design along with Pete Grzonka.
I designed the original full red one with the shoulder pads and two white lines on it. I have got a lot of stick for designing the ladders one.
I designed a huge range of shirts and a couple of people here decided to choose that one as their favourite.
It was one of my least favourites, but you live and learn.
The new shirt is nice, we have had a lot of positive feedback.
There is a slight change to the red, it is going back to more cherry red. They will have hoops which will keep people very happy.
There are a couple of slight changes to make it more modern, but on the whole it is not a huge difference but still very cool and I think it will sell well.
The European shirt is something I designed with Pete and Cougar which is a bit different to bring in a new feel.
The players might now even play in it just to sell and it is different to anything we have done.
Some people may not like it, but the young guys may like it, so we will see how that goes.
Could you give us an insight into the new players?
CH: Chistolini. It was a John Brain finding. He identified him down in Italy.
He was originally South African and he has played there down in the Cape.
He was a young kid not given much of a look-in down in South Africa because of the quota system.
He has Italian ancestry so he has been playing there, but he is a real out-and-out scrummager.
I watched him against Russia. He came on and he could scrum, there is no doubt about that, so I think we have unearthed a diamond.
He has some fitness work to do in a full professional environment.
Dan Murphy has come across from London Irish.
He is somebody that is a proven performer at Premiership level.
I think they could not afford to have three front line loose heads, so Dan came on the market.
It is in line with what we were talking about, developing English talent and he will push Woody.
We have seen him this week and he is a good specimen, he has the attributes – I am pretty positive about Dario and Dan.
Hooker Matias Cortese is again one of John Brain findings.
He was playing for the Jaguars, an Argentinean provincial side in the Vodacom cup in South Africa.
He has played in the Premiership with Northampton and he is a big man – 120kg .
I have not met him yet because he arrives on Friday but he give us the contrast.
If we are loading up against a Northampton and Leicester, they will look to load the scrum and Leicester around lineout time.
If you have that contrast you can pick and choose how the season goes on and Matty will give us that big physical presence in that front row.
RW: Hartpury and Gloucester have invested a lot of money in developing a brand new building in Hartpury College which will be Gloucester's own training complex.
It will have original changing rooms they were already using but revamped with nice hot showers that they have been lacking, a huge state-of-the-art gym and new offices for Bryan and Carl.
We will have all the academy staff in one building and we will be looking at allowing fans to come for a small amount of money to have lunch there and maybe watch some of the training as well, which Bryan is happy to let us do.
They are complete start-of-the art facilities, to make sure not only that the players are happy but to help entice some players who might not have that at their club, to come to Gloucester so they can have the best you can get.
CH: Hartpury is an outstanding facility when it is off-term and pre-season it is great.
The nature of Hartpury and it being an institution means they need numbers through doors to make money.
I have been here five years and the population of Hartpury must have swelled by 40 or 50 per cent.
It is problematic for us during the season if some of our games are scheduled for a Friday or a Sunday and change for TV.
We haven't got the flexibility during the academic timetable and it makes it difficult on a day-to-day basis.
But what the club have provided us for next season will be outstanding and up and running by October.
We don't want to give the players any excuse.
Opportunities to have whinge or a moan are now removed so we can put a bit more heat on the players.
Q: Why are the bar prices so high?
KN: We looked at all the bar prices, and all the pubs around and we are the best, we are competitive.
We compared them all and we are cheaper than the pubs around us.
When we researched it, it was not price, it was environment. You want to feel you are part of Gloucester Rugby club, this is my club, it is something I belong to, so how can we do that? The ground floor feels like a bus shelter you need to invest in it, so we put £30,000 into it.
We will have to put a laminate floor or something more attractive in.
We changed the lighting and we put in seating and stuff on the walls to try and create a more 'club' feel.
What we do know from speaking to the brewery is that changing habits in the brewery industry is very difficult.
Source http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/
