Mike Tindall will combine his playing duties with coaching next term © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Nigel Davies | Mike Tindall

Tournaments/Tours: Aviva Premiership

Teams: England | Gloucester Rugby

Gloucester centre Mike Tindall has all the attributes necessary to develop into a high-level coach, according to his boss Nigel Davies.

Tindall took on the role of player/coach at the Aviva Premiership side back in June after a period of time where it seemed likely that the former England centre had played his last game in Gloucester colours. But with the Cherry and Whites embracing the new regime headed up by Davies, Tindall is apparently flourishing and is showing promising signs despite it being early days in his coaching career.

"He's doing very well, I'm delighted with all the coaches really," Davies told the Gloucester Citizen. "We've spent our time wisely so far and everything is coming along quite well.

"I'm not putting any pressure on him in that regard, to allow him time to get a feel for things, but he's pushing things forward very nicely and pretty quickly. And having met him and spoken to people who know him I'm not surprised really, because of his rugby knowledge.

"This is the next phase of his career and I don't see why he can't evolve and develop into a real top-end coach."

Tindall was in the midst of the England set-up for nearly 11 years and this was primarily down to his own drive to improve his own game and adjust to the ever-changing nature of rugby. Davies believes Tindall's ability to analyse a game technically will pay dividends as he embarks on his coaching career.

"I think that some players are just very natural and have a lot of natural ability at the game, and those sometimes are the players that don't always make the best coaches," Davies said. "But Tinds is somebody who has worked extremely hard at his game technically over the years, and is very confident in every area of his own game.

"And he knows what it takes and how hard you have to work to step up through the levels and then make a success of that too. So he's got that naturally, but I think most importantly when you look at potential coaches, I think you've got to look at the quality of the person.

"And if the quality of the person is right, in terms of their work ethic, their desire and their commitment, their ability and their motivation to develop themselves, then that's half the battle. And I think Tinds exhibits all those qualities and I think he has done very well in a short space of time so far.

"He's got a big future in coaching and it will be great to see him continue to develop and progress here."