Gloucester have extended the contracts of Ruan Ackermann, Matias Alemanno, Val Rapava-Ruskin and Giorgi Kveseladze.

South African flanker Ackermann, 25, joined Gloucester in 2017 and has made 58 Premiership appearances for the club since then.

Prop Rapava-Ruskin, 29, has made over 70 appearances since joining from Worcester the same year.

"Ruan's performances from the start of the season, especially in the context that he missed the whole of pre-season and made it to the first week, is testament to his character," Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"He's becoming a real leader within the group. He's seriously tough, works seriously hard and has a huge impact on the game every week.

"Val Rapava-Ruskin is on his day one of the best loose-heads in the league and I think the more he's growing and the more he's buying into what we're doing, he's becoming a stronger and stronger force.

"I'm really excited about Val's potential and I really want to help him achieve that."

Argentina international lock Alemanno, 29, has 73 caps for his country and joined Gloucester from Jaguares, in his home country, in 2020.

Centre Kveseladze, 24, meanwhile, has made six appearances for Gloucester during the past two seasons. The Georgia international has 35 caps and played in all four of the team's matches during the 2019 World Cup.

"When he (Kveseladze) has played he's been outstanding, particularly that Northampton away game last year where he stepped in. I'm really excited about where Giorgi could go, I've no idea the ceiling of Georgi, I think he's a class act and I look forward to getting him out there as far as we can," Skivington continued.

"I've had interactions with Mati Alemanno for quite a number of years. I think we were quite lucky to get him here in the first place.

"He's an international-quality player, he's physical, he works hard and his character is outstanding for the group."