Gloucester get May in December

Gloucester announced on Thursday that Jonny May, one of the brightest young talents in the English game, signed a new contract to remain at Kingsholm.

The Swindon-born back is one of the most talented players to emerge from the Gloucester Academy in recent times. And he is, of course, in good company!

He made his first team breakthrough in 2009-10, a season which saw him represent England in the Under-20 Six Nations and Junior World Cup in Argentina.

The following season saw him start to feature more regularly at first team level, and he quickly showed an ability to make the tryline on a regular basis.

Capable of playing centre, wing or fullback, the 22-year-old enjoyed a real breakthrough campaign in 2011-12, when he started 22 matches and scored 10 tries.

He also won the Anglo-Welsh Breakthrough Player and Premiership Player of the Month for January awards.

His development was duly noticed by the England selectors, as he was capped at Saxons level and then called up to link up with the England senior squad on their mid-year tour of South Africa.   

Gloucester are, of course, looking to keep together one of the most talented, young, predominantly English backlines in the Premiership, and Director of Rugby Nigel Davies is delighted to secure May's services.

"I've spent a lot of time in recent weeks working on retaining a number of our key players, and I'm delighted to be able to confirm that Jonny has signed a new contract.

"Jonny has so much talent. He's already achieved a lot with Gloucester, but he's got so much potential that I genuinely think that we've only just scratched the surface of what he can achieve.

"It's great news for the club that he's committed his future to us. He's spent his whole career at Gloucester, and is happy with the direction we're heading in.

"We want to keep this core group of players together as there's a bright future ahead."