James Simpson-Daniel is adamant Dean Ryan was not to blame for Gloucester Rugby's failure last season.

The winger said the players needed to take collective responsibility for the way it ended – and that blame did not lie at Ryan's door.

"You can't expect to blame everything on one man," said Simpson-Daniel.

He also feels that keeping players fit will be crucial if Gloucester are to be successful in the next campaign.

"We know we have a smaller squad this season, so we will have to be lucky with injuries," he said. "If players do get injured we will have to start playing the youngsters a lot sooner than last time around.

"That's not to take anything away from them. We have a lot of talent coming through – players who will soon make themselves important members of the first team."

Simpson-Daniel is hoping new man in charge, Bryan Redpath, will freshen things up and get the team playing again.

But he revealed he was not spoken to as part of chairman Tom Walkinshaw's review, which led to Redpath stepping up and Ryan going.

"I'm just glad it's settled," he said. "It got to the point where the players were back training and didn't know what was going to happen.

"I wasn't spoken to by Tom and I don't know what was said between him and Dean.

"I have spoken to Dean since he left. I don't know what he plans to do next, but I do know I owe him a lot for how he developed my game.

"He championed the basics when I came on the scene and I owe a lot of the development of my skills in the contact area to him."

After tearing a pectoral muscle in the penultimate game of the season, Simpson- Daniel is back fit and in full training following his decision not to play for England in their games against the Barbarians and Argentina.

He feels Bath at home is the perfect way to start the season.

"We are focused on doing well in our pre-season games and making sure we are ready for that huge opener," he said.