‘It’s business time’ - Gloucester Rugby tune up for Gallagher PREM start

New Gloucester Rugby forwards coach Brett Deacon said he was delighted his players did the business on the pitch on Saturday after months of talking a good game.

The Cherry and Whites picked up their first win of the 2026/27 season with a 43-26 win over a relatively strong Sale Sharks side at Kingsholm on Saturday, with the forwards providing a strong foundation across the setpiece areas, especially maul drives from lineouts, with hooker Seb Blake twice delivered across the white wash.

Will Trenholm, playing out of position at lock, also blasted over the line from close range for a classic forwards try while Ben Redshaw, Will Joseph, Ollie Thorley and Max Knight scored the other four tries for the hosts from the backs division.

Speaking post-match, Deacon said: “I think there were definitely improvements from the defeat to Bristol. Especially up front, there was definitely an increase in intensity, an increase in movement. The set piece was way better. The scrum was phenomenal today, yeah, I think the scrum was a big shift from the boys. We're pleased. Definitely, we've seen some of the things that we've been working on for, you know, five weeks now."

There has been plenty of change at Kingshom this summer, with Deacon switching Leicester Tigers for Gloucester as forwards coach, with the aim of trying to bring a harder edge to the pack.

Joel Tomkins has also come in from rugby league side the Catalan Dragons, where he was head coach, to take up the role of defence coach at the Gallagher PREM outfit.

With a significant crop of new players, a lot of work has been done bedding in new philosophies around the game, some of which were not on display in the 43-40 defeat to Bristol Bears on the opening weekend of the season.

Deacon continued: “We've kind of tried to instil a brand new game, a brand new principle around how we're going to defend, how we're going to be around the forwards.

“Now, it's business time. It's like now you need to showcase it, you need to go and do it. And I think we scored two decent maul tries against Sale, which is a big thing. I know the crowd love a maul here, so that's one thing that I'm really conscious about.”

With Gloucester’s Gallagher PREM curtain raiser away at Exeter Chiefs on September 26 speeding towards them, Deacon will be slightly more concerned about his side’s inability to stop the opposition’s driving maul, having been beaten up by the Bears pack last week and conceding another two maul scores against Sale, with Alfie Longstaff and Nathan Jibulu touching down, while Dom Hanson and Tom O’Flaherty got the other scores.

He will now have two weeks to try and right that before putting themselves to the test against last season's Gallagher PREM beaten finalists.