Gloucester Rugby named Wales hooker Dewi Lake as club captain for the 2026/27 season, with England centre Seb Atkinson and Wales and British & Irish Lions flanker Jac Morgan as vice-captains. Lake is 27 and has 34 caps, having captained Wales several times, most recently in their summer Nations Series. Gloucester host Bath at Kingsholm on Friday 23rd October in Round 4 of the Gallagher Premiership.
It is a remarkable piece of recruitment. Lake and Morgan crossed from the Ospreys at a time of deep uncertainty in Welsh rugby, with the number of men’s professional clubs there set to fall from four to three. Lake co-captained Wales with Morgan at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Director of rugby George Skivington described him on signing as a “gritty and abrasive” player and said fans would take to him quickly. On being named captain, Lake said he was “extremely honoured” and spoke of the club’s history.
Gloucester have long had a Welsh accent. Tomos Williams and Max Llewellyn were already at Kingsholm when Morgan and Lake arrived. What is new is that the captaincy now sits with a Welshman who had not played a game for the club a year ago.
The season so far gives that appointment an early test. Gloucester won 45-24 at Exeter on 26th September, then beat Harlequins 48-0 on 3rd October. A 38-31 defeat at Leicester on 9th October followed, their first of the campaign.
Bath will be a sterner test. They won both Premiership meetings last season, 38-17 at Bath in October and 30-26 at Kingsholm in January. The second of those was decided by four points, which suggests the gap is smaller than the record implies.
A captain who has never lost at Kingsholm is not an option, because he has not played there long enough to find out. What Lake and his vice-captains can do is show that a side scoring 31 points in a defeat has the attack to beat anyone, and that the defence will catch up.
