Redpath's trial is over - now he needs Glaws success

Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath reckons that missing out on a place in next season's Heineken Cup is not the end of the world, but it's debateable whether officials behind the scenes will agree. They were no doubt hoping that a good draw would bring some of Europe's big names to Kingsholm, increasing interest at the quietest time of the year and even boosting season ticket sales.

But instead it's the Amlin Cup, but who's to say that it can't throw up better games than the Heineken might have offered and that Glaws can't make better progress in it?
After what can only be put down as a transitional season, Glaws and their fans will be expecting some sort of progress next season and while owner Tom Walkinshaw says that success in the domestic game is the club's main target, he would snatch your hand off now if you were to offer him victory in the Amlin.
Redpath told the Citizen: "I think the Amlin Challenge Cup is a tournament that has really grown in credibility over the past couple of seasons and we'll be looking to do ourselves justice in it next season.
"But the main goal for us is to make sure that we qualify for the Heineken Cup as a result of our own efforts."
He described missing out on the Heineken: "It's disappointing but it's not the end of the world. We put ourselves in a position where we were relying on other people to do us a favour and it didn't work out."
As club rugby takes its annual holiday, Redpath will be finding time to sort out his tactics and game plan for 2010-11 and to keep all his fingers crossed for a relatively injury-free eight or nine months starting in September.
Pre-season training will be as important as ever as Redpath tries to improve on last season - he was on trial then and didn't do badly for a rookie chief coach.
Walkinshaw and the fans will be hoping - perhaps even expecting - better next season. Redpath missed his target in 2009-10 and anything less than the top four would be failure, less than the top six a disaster.