Young guns can fire us into top two – Mike Tindall

Gloucester player-coach Mike Tindall believes that the Cherry & Whites’ young guns should train their sights on a top-two finish in the Premiership this season.
Nigel Davies’ side missed out on a place in the play-offs by five points and it did not take long for Tindall to identify why they failed to gatecrash the top four.
For while they picked up league wins over the top four  – Leicester, Saracens, Northampton and Harlequins  – they also lost to three of the bottom four.
Since then, however, Freddie Burns, Jonny May and Matt Kvesic have made their first senior England starts while Billy Twelvetrees has pulled on a Lions shirt and with Davies fully settled into his role as director of rugby at Kingsholm, Tindall told The Rugby Paper that Gloucester will approach the new season with renewed confidence.
He said: “Last season we did not have any solid goals because of the way the previous year ended.
“But I know that at the end of this season we were frustrated at not finishing in the top four. Next year we need to be aiming for the top two.
“We are lucky at Gloucester to have so many young English players. The obvious ones are Freddie, Jonny May, Billy Twelvetrees, who has established himself this year really and I think Ben Morgan still has a lot more to give.
“Look at our consistency against top-four sides, it is outstanding – we have beaten them all at home and only narrowly lost away. It is about making sure that those performances stack up for the rest of the season.
“We got smashed by Sale away when they were struggling and London Welsh, those are the games we need to be winning if we want to be a top-four side. Look at Leicester, they dominate those games.
“We have been able to raise our game for the top four but we also need to raise our game when we are playing other teams.”
With Morgan back to his blockbusting best at the back of the scrum, Gloucester are spoilt for choice for England players.
Yet Tindall believes their international contingent will be further swelled next season by a player who was in the amateur ranks just a couple of years ago – Rob Cook, formerly at Nuneaton before joining Cornish Pirates.
He said: “Mike Brown has been an outstanding full-back for England for the last couple of years and (Alex) Goode is a good player as well, but this year Cook has really been up there with them.
“We brought him for his kicking, for his consistency in that area – but he was one of the finds of the season.
“He was one of the players of the year with the fans and he was one of the players of the year with the players so he has really stepped up.
“It just shows that you don’t have to go through the conventional routes. If you are playing well in the Championship then you will get noticed.
“When Jonny (May) got injured, Rob got his opportunity at full-back and has never looked backed.”
DANIEL SCHOFIELD