GLOUCESTER rugby director David Humphreys believes rugby is edging closer towards football following England wing Jonny May's Kingsholm exit.

May joined Leicester last week, with lock Ed Slater moving in the opposite direction. Gloucester also receiving a transfer fee.

"The reality now is that rugby is moving towards football," Humphreys added.

"In effect, Jonny came in and handed in a transfer request. He did it and explained it was for personal reasons and for some rugby reasons.

"We have the view, Johan (Ackermann. head coach) and I, that we only want players playing for Gloucester who want to be here. We feel with the transfer fee and the addition of Ed Slater to our squad, we will be in a stronger position going into next season.

"Jonny has been an outstanding player for Gloucester for many years, and the X-factor he brings will be missed, no question.

"But if you look back at the last couple of seasons, we haven't lost games because we couldn't score tries - we have been scoring lots of tries - our big issue has been around making sure we are competitive up-front.

"When Jonny had decided he wanted to leave, we sat down as a management team and wanted to make sure we recruited where we needed to most."