Charlie Sharples happy to stay at Gloucester
Gloucester Rugby are delighted to confirm that Charlie Sharples, one of the club’s brightest young English talents has agreed a contract extension to remain at Kingsholm.
The new deal is an extension to his current contract which was set to enter its final year and he would no doubt have been hot property on the open market. However, he will now remain at Gloucester Rugby until at least the end of the 2013-4 season.
The 21 year old winger has been one of the major success stories at Kingsholm over the past couple of seasons. First catching the eye at one of the club’s local rugby camps, he was quickly drafted into the Academy and made his first team debut in March 2008. 2008-9 saw more first team action and England U20 recognition followed but 2009-10 was his real breakthrough campaign when he scored 10 tries from 16 competitive starts. And the 2010-11 allayed any fears of him being tagged a one season wonder as he crossed the whitewash 18 times in 25 starts.
Nominated for a host of young player awards last season, he also shone for the England Saxons in the Churchill Cup and is currently training with England’s preliminary World Cup squad. Head Coach Bryan Redpath was quick to stress today that Sharples has been awarded his new contract on merit. “Charlie’s development has been one of the high points of my time at Gloucester. He’s got great talent but he also applies himself and has a real desire to make himself a better player.”
“He’s worked incredibly hard and I genuinely think there’s more to come from him. I’m delighted he’s agreed his new contract, he’s earned it through his own endeavours and thoroughly deserves it. It’s also a statement of intent as to the direction we’re heading in as a club. We want to keep our best talent here to form the core of the squad for years to come.”
As for Sharples himself, he’s delighted that both parties were pro-active and came to an agreement early to allow him to focus on his rugby: “It’s a weight off my mind. I knew I wanted to stay and I was pretty certain that the club wanted me around so I thought why wait around until Christmas time? It’s great to get it sorted so soon. Things have been going well and now I know that I’ve got at least three years left with Gloucester so now I can knuckle down and focus on playing well for them.
Gloucester’s a good club to be at. I’m very settled here with all my friends and family around. I get on very well with Brush and Hoggy, they’re really good coaches. We’ve got new facilities being built at Hartpury, it’s all on the up and up. I never even contemplated being anywhere else.”