{"id":380874,"date":"2026-01-20T19:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/380874\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T19:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:52:10","slug":"big-physical-and-uncompromising-gloucester-rugby-sign-former-bristol-bears-favourite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/380874\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Big, physical and uncompromising’ – Gloucester Rugby sign former Bristol Bears favourite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gloucester Rugby have confirmed their fifth recruit ahead of the 2026\/27 season<\/p>\n

Joe Joyce on the charge for Bristol Bears (Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images)(Image: )<\/p>\n

Gloucester Rugby have revealed the signing of former Bristol Bears lock Joe Joyce ahead of next season as the Cherry and Whites look to add experience to their squad for the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n

The Bristol-born second row established himself as a cult hero at his hometown club, making 150 appearances for the Bears between 2014 and 2023, before heading over the Irish Sea to join Connacht, where he has continued to impress, often captaining the United Rugby Championship side.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gloucester Rugby player ratings from Toulon defeat – ‘Lacked composure’<\/a><\/p>\n

Joyce becomes Gloucester’s fifth confirmed signing ahead of next season, joining Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan from the Ospreys, Dan Robson from Pau and Jean Kleyn from Munster.<\/p>\n

In his time at Aston Gate, Joyce was integral to Bristol\u2019s success in that period, earning the Players\u2019 Player of the Season award in 2018. At 6\u20195\u2019\u2019 and 119kg, Joyce will add significant size and power to the Gloucester Rugby pack ahead of the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n

Cherry and Whites director of rugby, George Skivington, said: \u201cWe\u2019re really pleased to bring Joe back over to the Gallagher PREM for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s big, physical and uncompromising, and he\u2019ll add a real edge to our pack, similar to those guys we\u2019ve already added ahead of the new season.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe has got plenty of big game experience, and he\u2019ll be great for the younger guys in the building, like Freddie and Arthur, to lean on with the leadership qualities he possesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to working with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce added: \u201cI\u2019m really excited about making the move to Gloucester and getting back into PREM Rugby next season, it\u2019s a fantastic opportunity for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m someone who prides myself on working hard, setting high standards, and using my experience to help drive the group forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make a positive impact on and off the field and play my part in helping the club achieve success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gloucester Rugby have confirmed their fifth recruit ahead of the 2026\/27 season Joe Joyce on the charge for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[32009,5903,101,22815,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-380874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-gloucester-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-the-rfu-championship","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}