Davies takes charge at Gloucester
Scarlets coach Nigel Davies has made the move to the English Premiership to take up the vacant position of Director of rugby at Gloucester.
Davies has been in charge of the Scarlets since June 2008 but his association with his home region in West Wales spans three decades, having spent his entire playing career there, then moving to a role as attack coach for seven years during which time the club achieved four Heineken Cup quarterfinals and two semifinals.
His appointment concludes an intensive search following the sudden resignation of head coach Bryan Redpath who has since joined Premiership rivals Sale Sharks..
The Llanelli born and bred centre won 29 caps for his country between 1988 and 1997, before joining the Welsh national coaching set up under Gareth Jenkins. Davies is one of the very few Welsh players to have both coached and captained his country.
As a player of undisputed talent, he played 498 games for Llanelli becoming one of only 21 players to have scored more than 100 tries for the Scarlets where he also played in a record nine Welsh cup finals, winning six.
He returned to the Scarlets as head coach in May 2008 leading the development of the Scarlets squad which includes the emergence onto the regional and international scene today of some of Wales’ most exciting new rugby talent.
Davies has led a philosophy of developing Welsh talent from within the Scarlets region and the strategy has produced the majority of Wales’ backline strike power (Rhys Priestland, George North, Jon Davies, Scott Williams, Liam Williams), with 13 Scarlets players supplied to the international teams in the Six Nations.
He was also instrumental in the identification and development of the recently capped England and Gloucester No.8 Ben Morgan.
Gloucester Managing Director Ken Nottage paid tribute to the professionalism and consideration shown by the Scarlets in concluding his move to Gloucester.
"We're delighted that Nigel has agreed to become our new Director of rugby as he was the outstanding candidate throughout the recruitment process.
"The Scarlets have been very impressive in the way they have approached the situation from the start and in their consideration to ensure Nigel had sufficient time to make such a significant decision at this stage of his career," he said.
Davies will start his new role with Gloucester after returning from a visit next week to the Junior World Championships in South Africa which had been organised some months ago, during which he will take in some of the England Under-20 games in which Gloucester players Koree Britton, Ryan Mills and Dan Robson feature.
