Aviva Premiership
A victim of a results business
Tom Hamilton
May 12, 2014
Mike Tindall and Nigel Davies watch Gloucester lose at Worcester ... within 48 hours Davies had lost his job © Getty Images
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This was meant to be a big campaign at Kingshom. In the close season they brought in England openside Matt Kvesic, for what was meant to be his big breakthrough year. Instead he struggled behind a malfunctioning front-five - though Elliott Stooke can feel proud of his effort this term - and Gloucester's backs were starved of ball.

Their most gifted playmaker Freddie Burns was left on the bench for much of the second-half of the season to leave Billy Twelvetrees to carry the brunt of responsibility for the team as kicker, captain and inspiration. He ended up limping off in their penultimate game of the season, he deserved to finish on a better note.

There were some schools of thought that despite how bad Gloucester's season was, the board may have let Davies have more time as he had spent big ahead of next term with Richard Hibbard, John Afoa and Greig Laidlaw coming in. Instead, it will be a new man at the helm who is responsible for nurturing those talents.

In the end, the bad points outweighed the good. Young players have had their chance under Davies but this is a results business. A season where you lose both matches against arch-rivals Bath is grim, but in a campaign where you finish ninth with few positives to hang on to, that is clearly unforgivable.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Tom Hamilton is the Associate Editor of ESPNscrum.

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