It is barely an hour after Gloucester’s first training session of the week when Kyle Moyle speaks to TRU in one of Kingsholm Stadium’s hospitality boxes.
After a pre-season schedule that saw George Skivington’s side beat both Munster and Cardiff Rugby, their preparations for the campaign have taken on a different intensity. This Sunday, the side who finished fifth in the Gallagher Premiership in 2021-22, will open the new term with a visit from Wasps.
When it comes to Gloucester, there have been relatively few changes during the summer. With a longer list of outgoings than those that will now call the West Country home, it is largely the same group of players that pushed for the play-offs last year.
The club has been in the headlines during the offseason after Ed Slater revealed in July that he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease [MND], the club helping the 34-year-old raise funds for his young family thanks to the 4Ed campaign which included a 350-mile cycle which included some of the club’s stars.
Only having made the postseason once in the past 10 years, Moyle has only been a part of that journey for a short period of time and is due to be taking part in his fourth season with the club.
Joining in the midst of a lockdown and the global pandemic raging on, he has already experienced the highs and lows of life in Cherry and White. From a seventh place finish to 11th a season later and most recently fifth, it has certainly been a rollercoaster for the 29-year-old Cornishman.
“The first reflection was, it was great to come fifth,” Moyle said. “The season before, with the two games that got cancelled at the end of the season, we could have finished seventh or eighth, but we ended finishing in 11th.
“So, you look at fifth and you probably think that is a great season, but you actually reflect on the end of the season, we probably deserved more than that. We probably let ourselves down in a few games where we should of won and we probably should have been in that playoff spot.
“I think that is what as a squad and as a unit we probably deserved to be, but through no fault of our own we didn’t get there. That was probably the reflection coming into this season; we came so close, but now we know what we have got to do to get there.
“We know the challenges we have got to face and what we now need to do to make sure we do get into that top four.”
There are several losses in Gloucester’s 2021/22 season that, in part, explain the side’s close call. At seasons end, Moyle and his teammates were just two points adrift of Northampton Saints in fourth.
Throughout the season there were a number of close calls, including two close defeats to Harlequins, Sale Sharks, Wasps and Bristol Bears. Of course, it is all if buts and coconuts, but picking up victories could have been the difference for a side stacked with attacking talent.
It is an attack under new leadership following the departure of Alex King over the summer. This means that the immensely experienced backs at the club, along with former Gloucester fly-half Tim Taylor, have taken charge of that aspect of play, something which Moyle says has been a focal point leading into the new campaign.
“We are changing the way we play a little bit, playing in the right areas is a big thing for us, we do have a strong kicking game so we use that when we can, but we have certain times when we come alive in attack now,” Moyle said.
“So, when the chance does come, we have to take that. We all as a unit, as a team, have come alive in that moment and that’s where we have been training really hard with our new attack shape to break teams down.
“Tim Taylor has really stepped up. He took that role within himself, and he is doing a fantastic job. Dom [Waldouck] also, our defence coach, he helps out a lot and he is very knowledgeable, but you have also got Aki [Mark Atkinson] and Bill [Twelvetrees] and Charris [Chris Harris] and Hasto [Adam Hastings] and Lloydy [Lloyd Evans], boys that understand the game so well.
“They are mini coaches within the group as well. We have got a lot of knowledge here, so there is some good boys helping us, and that attack shape is really coming on because of that core group we have got.”
With Santiago Carreras on duty with Argentina in The Rugby Championship – and pulling up trees for Los Pumas at fly-half – Moyle is set to be getting his fair share of minutes in the 15 jersey this season.
Lloyd Evans has been getting a runout in the preseason in that position this summer also, meaning that competition is by no means a million miles away, any opportunity to play in a backline with the virtuoso talents of Louis Rees-Zammit, Jonny May, Ollie Thorley, as well as the likes of Atkinson and Harris, it is a mouth-watering prospect.
“You can call it stardust,” Moyle said. “You look at the back three for instance; we have got Jonny May, Thorlo, Zam as your wingers. Name me a better back three wingers in the league, and then you have got Santiago Carreras to add into the mix.
“When you have got boys like that on the width, we have to have a game that gets them space on the ball and that’s probably what we weren’t doing the year before. With this new style of play, that is hopefully going to bring those guys into the game with a bit of space and a bit of ball.
“There is big names and good lads all over the place, but with that is a mixture of hard work. They are all wanting to do the same thing for the club and buy into that, which is why I think we’ll be such a successful team this year.”
Thoughts of the Mennaye
“When I was 26 or 27, I ruptured my ACL. I was playing some of the best rugby I have,” Moyle said. “I had a great season, backed it up the next season and then got injured. At that point, I was like ‘that’s me done’, hoping that I would make it back to playing for Pirates, but I never expected to get back playing the way I was or even to have interest from a Premiership club.
“Thankfully I got an opportunity to just come on loan for a three month period while we were on furlough with Pirates. They wouldn’t have missed me anyway, so they were happy for me to leave.
Moyle joined Gloucester in 2020 after eight years in the Championship with Cornish Pirates
“I gave it absolutely everything. I got my opportunity to play through injury, but I gave it everything and a contract came with it, which was really cool.”
Before Moyle called Kingsholm home, his regular commute would take him to Cornish Pirates’ Mennaye Field. In the same age group as England internationals Jack Nowell and Luke Cowan-Dickie at both school and club level growing up, Moyle was one of the stars of the Championship for eight years prior to joining Gloucester.
Two years into his journey in the West Country, Moyle is consistently testing himself to be “the best player I can be”, the 29-year-old still keeps a close eye to the goings on in Penzance.
Since departing, there have been plenty of changes in Cornwall, the playing group looking very different to when he left for the Premiership a short time ago. A proud club that has marched up the English league ladder and is now one of the few clubs in the second division that are still professional following the RFU’s funding cuts in 2020.
More recently Pirates learnt that their long-time benefactor, Dicky Evans announced a three-year sunset plan that would conclude his investment into Pirates. Announced in March, the £2.5m fund means that the club can continue to move forward as a professional side.
“I am chuffed that there is three more years of funding there,” Moyle said. “But the future is a bit uncertain down there. I am just hoping that within that time someone else can come in, take over and have the same passion for the club.
“He has given so much to that club that it would be a shame if it disappeared or dropped down the leagues.
“There is still some great people down there that will be doing great things, so I am hoping it can all get sorted one way or the other and they keep playing good Championship rugby because they are a top team with good ambitions as well. It would be great to see them in the Prem.”
Aiming for top four
It’s Tuesday afternoon, and Moyle still has to go home before heading to Cheltenham Tigers to coach the senior women’s side that evening. Persuaded to get involved in coaching by his former Gloucester teammate Tom Hudson, the 29-year-old says that going out to coach has already become a welcome distraction from everyday life.
That side is still in the middle of preseason, their first game in a weekend’s time against Worcester on the road, while Moyle’s attentions are firmly on his first outing this Sunday afternoon at home to Wasps.
Their 21-27 loss to Lee Blackett’s side at Kingsholm last season was one of the defeats that has lasted long in the memory of many in Cherry and White. But with a new season, things that happened prior are washed off.
“It has been a great preseason, so we are all looking forward to getting out there in front of a packed out Shed,” Moyle said. “There is probably not other feeling like Prem rugby to be honest.
“We played Cardiff and Munster, but we know the challenge is going to be completely different this weekend. It is going to be physical; it is going to be faster; it is going to be a tougher challenge at the breakdown as well – they have got some of the best jackalers in the Prem.
“We know the challenges we have got coming, we are ready for them and we’re looking forward to meeting them head on and taking it to them.”
To finish the conversation, that overhanging topic that is present at any start of season conversation; ambition. In Gloucester’s case, there should be plenty.
Not long ago they were left at the end of the regular season disappointed, so close to a playoff spot. With largely the same group of players and a strong ethos, Moyle says that the objective for he and his teammates is simple.
“It is about being a top four team to be honest,” Moyle said. “No beating around the bush. That is our goal, to get top four. Obviously we want to do well in Europe as well this year, but to make top four, that is definitely out goal, and I think one that’s doable.”
