JOHN Muggleton has hailed Trevor Woodman as Gloucester's unsung hero.
It is a tag that was often used for Woodman during his playing days as one of the under-stated members of England's World Cup winning team in 2003 and since returning to Kingsholm as scrum coach last March the former Gloucester prop has overseen a massive improvement in that area.
If ever proof was needed that his methods are working it came last Saturday as Gloucester's pack completely over-powered Harlequins in their 25-7 LV=Cup win.
Defence coach Muggleton, who was placed in charge along with Nick Walshe for the last two games against Ospreys and Harlequins in the Anglo-Welsh competition, said: "He's one of the unsung heroes around the place.
"All the other coaches get a mention but Trevor is a World Cup winner and he's doing a great job with the scrum.
"It's coming along under the waves like a submarine sneaking up on people.
"There's a little bit of inconsistency that we'll be working on but we've matched teams pretty well in the scrum and that's one of the things we had to do on Saturday."
The scrum is expected to be a key area once again when Gloucester face Leicester at Welford Road in the Aviva Premiership on Friday night.
While the Tigers will be without some key forwards due to the Six Nations, Muggleton is not expecting it to be any easier than normal.
He said: "It's never a good time to be playing at Welford Road but we've certainly got some momentum about us, we're confident and we're playing pretty good football.
"We're getting a lot of bonus points and we'll go there to attack them as hard as we can and really get stuck into them in defence.
"You can't go into Welford Road any other way but expecting a very physical contest.
"We're not going there to match them, we're going to go there to out-muscle them which is the only way to go there.
"They'll have the same support there as we get here. We know how good that is and what it can do for you so we'll be prepared for that and we'll turn up ready to play."
With Gloucester winning their last six games in a row in all competitions it is a happy camp at the moment, but Muggleton believes that is as much down to the way they're performing, particularly the younger members of the squad who impressed during the LV=Cup games.
He said: "It's a bit about winning and it's a bit about the way you're playing as well.
"You can win ugly and still get the points but the way we're winning is also very good with the young blokes coming through and whoever we call on to fill a hole fills that hole very well and fits in with the rest so that's probably the most pleasing thing."
