George Skivington discusses ‘expensive’ Santi Carreras’ Gloucester future as Bath look to swoop
George Skivington admitted Gloucester are facing significant competition to keep Argentina star Santi Carreras at the club beyond this season with rivals circling as his current contract ticks down.
One of the clubs reportedly leading the chase for the services of the 53-cap Pumas international are West Country derby rivals Bath who are looking to reinforce their options at full-back despite having a star-studded squad already.
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Carreras, 26, arrived at Kingsholm in 2021 and has emerged as arguably the brightest talent in the squad, with the ability to play at full-back, fly-half and winger. In fact, looking at his professional career in its entirety he has started 38 percent of games with 15 on his back and 38 percent with 10, with the other 24 percent as a winger. That versatility makes him highly valuable in the era of reduced squad sizes in the Gallagher Premiership, but Gloucester director of rugby Skivington added: “It makes him pretty expensive as well, so that's the reality of it.
“Santi came here and we've put a lot of effort into him and helped develop his game and he's been brilliant and invested in it and the challenge then comes when you help get someone to a certain point where there's a lot of interest. They get very expensive but that's that's the nature of the beast.
“There is a lot of interest in Santi that, those sort of guys get a lot of interest. I don't tend to involve myself in who the interest is with, I just talk to the player themselves. His contract is up so I would imagine most clubs would be very happy to have him. But yeah, we'll just see how that unfolds.”
Skivington said he considers Carreras to be ‘one of ours now’ having been at the club for four years and revealed the Cherry and Whites are working hard to try and extend his stay.
He said: “I've got a very good rapport with Santi, there's no cloak and dagger stuff, it's all pretty straightforward so we have had good conversations but without a doubt there's a number of clubs interested and there's a lot of factors go into these things and a lot of decisions. It's in Santi's court really.”
Skivington has already moved to strengthen his back three ahead of the 2025/26 season with a deal to bring in former London Irish winger Ben Loader from the Stormers in the bag but yet to be announced.
