Dean Ryan

Head Coach

Dean played for Saracens, Wasps, Newcastle and Bristol, and the former England number eight tasted league success as a player with both Wasps (89-90) and Newcastle (97-98). Regardless as one of the most competitive and robust forwards of his generation, he guided Newcastle to the Premiership title at their first attempt.He moved into coaching whilst at Bristol, taking over from Bob Dwyer at the Memorial Stadium club in the summer of 2000.

Ryan was in charge at Bristol for two seasons, taking them to the Zurich Championship final in 2002, before joining up with Nigel Melville at Gloucester that summer. The 38-year-old has had three years as coach at Gloucester. His first season saw Gloucester win the Powergen Cup at Twickenham and finish top of the regular Zurich Premiership season, but losing the Premiership final to Wasps. There has also been a Heineken Cup quarter-final in the 2003/04 season, before his appointment this summer as head coach as a replacement to Nigel Melville.

Bryan Redpath

Assistant Coach

The former Scotland scrum-half retired from playing in May after a successful professional career that saw him represent Sale, Narbonne, Edinburgh and Melrose, and win 60 international caps.

Redpath completed a successful season with Sale Sharks at the end of 2006-2007 after lifting the European Challenge Cup, and played his final professional game for the Barbarians against England at Twickenham at the end of the same season. The 33-year-old signed a two-year contract as backs coach at Gloucester Rugby in the summer of 2007.

Denis Betts

Skills & Development Coach

Denis Betts, the former Wigan and Great Britain second-row forward, is Gloucester's skills and development coach. The 36-year-old made 32 appearances for Great Britain and won 20 domestic trophies with Wigan, follows Shaun Edwards, Andy Farrell, Jason Robinson, Joe Lydon and Phil Larder from league to union in a decade of professionalism in the 15-man code.

Last season Betts was Wigan's assistant coach before resigning. He was Warriors' acting head coach for 12 months until May 2005 before Ian Millward's appointment, when he resumed an assistant's role. He is now at Kingsholm and will take charge of player skills and development.

Carl Hogg

Forwards Coach

FORMER Scotland back row forward Carl Hogg is Gloucester’s forwards coach.

Capped five times by Scotland, Hogg joined Gloucester in 2006 following spells at Edinburgh during the 2004-5 season.

During his playing days, Hogg earned five caps for Scotland and was a member of five international tours. He played with the Borders Reivers and Edinburgh Reivers between 1996 and 2001 before taking up a contract with Leeds Tykes.

He had two seasons at Headingley before taking on the role of coaching co-ordinator, taking particular responsibility for the Leeds Tykes A XV. Hogg gained level two and three coaching certificates from the English RFU and has a specialist coaching qualification in back-row play. He has also completed a Msc in Sports Coaching for Brunel University.

Hogg won the first of his five caps while he was on Scotland's 1992 tour to Australia, and a month later he was in the Scottish team who competed in the Students World Cup in Italy. He led Scotland A in six of his 17 appearances at that level and has captained Melrose.
 
He also played for the Scotland under-19 and under-21 teams, captaining the latter. He added three A caps in season 1999-2000 during which he also led Edinburgh until, once again, injury interrupted his career. Early in 2001 he transferred from Edinburgh to Leeds where the following season he captained that club in their inaugural season in the Premiership.

Mark Bitcon

Head of Strength and Conditioning

Mark is new to Gloucester's back room staff for the start of the 2008-9 as head of strength and conditioning. The 29-year-old joined Gloucester from Scottish Rugby in the summer, where he was head of elite strength and conditioning. He brings with him a wealth of experience from the club and international game having worked with London Wasps, Glasgow Warriors and most recently Scotland. Mark takes over at Gloucester from Mike Anthony, the former All Blacks conditioner, who has returned home to take up the role of high performance sports science manager for the New Zealand Rugby Union.

On his arrival, Gloucester's head coach Dean Ryan, said: “Firstly I want to give enormous thanks to Mike Anthony, who joined Gloucester from the All Blacks four years ago and has been instrumental in helping to create the professional training environment we have today. “The opportunity to bring on board somebody of Mark’s calibre couldn’t be ignored. His impact on the strength and power of the Scotland team has been obvious to everybody in the rugby community, and I’m really excited about how he will challenge and motivate the Gloucester squad.” Mark added: “I’d like to thank everybody at the Scottish Rugby for their great support and hard work over the last three years. I would particularly like to thank Frank and all the national management team for making my time at Scottish Rugby so enjoyable. I believe the Scotland squad are in tremendous shape and can look forward to the new season with great optimism.

“There aren’t many jobs in rugby that I would have considered moving for, but the chance to get back to the week-to-week pressures of club rugby for a side like Gloucester who aim to be challenging at the highest levels in Europe was too good to turn down. I can’t wait to get stuck into the players next month.”