Pierre Capdeviellve has played three times for France A

Gloucester have announced the signings of four new forwards, including French prop Pierre Capdevielle from Brive.

The arrival of the 35-year-old France A man has been welcomed by his former Montferrand team-mate Olivier Azam.

Azam told BBC Gloucestershire: "It's always good to have someone older in the squad and he's also heavier - he'll get people off my back!"

Also joining are Darren Dawidiuk from Cornish Pirates, Rupert Harden from Tynedale and Dave Attwood from Bristol.

Attwood will provide cover at lock, while Dawidiuk will compete with Azam, Scott Lawson and Andy Titterrell to be the club's hooker and Harden adds to Gloucester's options at prop.

The trio are likely to be more squad players than first team regulars, but head coach Bryan Redpath still feels they have an important role to fill.

He said: "The squad's got smaller, some of the more experienced players have left and have been replaced by players that make the squad competitive enough.

"Dave Attwood played at the latter end of Bristol's season. He's only young but can fill in, Rupert Harden again is a youngster and we'll probably put him out on loan somewhere because he's a longer-term project and Darren Dawidiuk is a younger hooker."

The only business Gloucester are expected to do before the start of the season is new contracts for some existing players.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version