Melville starts new role tied to paperwork

Gloucester finally got their hands on Nigel Melville, but frustratingly the new director of rugby at Kingsholm cannot lay hands on his new charges for another month.

In a remarkable arrangement Gloucester have revealed that there is an ethos in this professional era by agreeing that Melville will not be involved in team preparation until after the Cherry and Whites have fulfilled their rearranged Zurich Premiership fixture against Wasps at Loftus Road on 9 April.

That match had originally been scheduled for December, but a frozen pitch meant a new date, provisionally 9 May, but Melville's arrival and the consequent ethical situation has necessitated a re-think.

The feeling is that Wasps insisted on the moratorium, but the Gloucester owner and chairman, Tom Walkinshaw, reasoned: "It just did not seem right. He knows so much about Wasps, we felt that this was a sensible arrangement."

So Melville, who has signed a four-year deal reputed to be worth around £150,000 per year, will have to steer clear of the training ground during the week and the dug-out on match days until that game has been settled. "My first job is to keep the quality players here," said Melville, 41, who, it is rumoured, will not even be allowed into Loftus Road when the two teams meet up in April.

The month-long, hands-off covenant does at least give Melville a chance to work his way through a mountain of paperwork, not least a few outstanding contracts that still have to be negotiated, among them that of the England and Lions prop, Phil Vickery.

While Philippe Saint-André, Melville's predecessor, was still around, Vickery had been adamant that he could not be counted on to stay and with Leicester and Northampton rumoured to be waving big sums of money under his nose, the Cornishman may well be tempted to strike north, but after meeting with him yesterday, Melville was optimism personified. "I have already spoken to Phil and we'll be speaking again tonight, but talks are progressing. Phil is a fantastic talisman for this club." The Melville magic might even persuade the large French contingent to stay. The big worry is the hooker, Olivier Azam, who is concerned that prolonging his England sojourn might prejudice his chances of staking a firmer place in the France team.

Walkinshaw did admit that he had been after Melville for some time. "When rumours first surfaced that he might be leaving Wasps last year I phoned Nigel and said that if he did leave, I would be interested and to ring me."

He was and he did. "Six years in London is long enough," Melville said yesterday, at his official unveiling. "Philippe Saint-André is a really tough act to follow, but for me moving from a metropolitan club like Wasps to a City-based one like Gloucester is fantastic. It is a great challenge."

It is that, because Melville also has to win over the Shed – the hard core of Gloucester supporters. "I have the utmost respect for the Shed," Melville said, "but I am just delighted that the next time I step out on to the pitch they will be on my side." He hopes.