Players out of Contract..

First topic message reminder :

Recently we had a thread on Welsh regions players out of contract.

Does anyone know what the status on each of the Aviva Premiership sides players contracts is or the French Top 14?

Would be interested to see who currently is on the market.


On a side note regarding Welsh players contracts - The 4 Regions are still being Audited and that explains why some have not been offered contracts until the results are submitted to the WRU during March. Blues want to offer Gethin a new contract and Scarlets want to keep Davies and have told both players they will table offers as soon as they can (ie March). Players may not wait that long though.

Didn't Dupuy's contract get bought out early by Stade as well?

Apparently Stephen Jones is out of contract with the Scarlets and Gloucester are interested in signing him.

Jones would be a great signing for Glos, they need another FH. Burns is a talent, but very unpredictable. Having the experience of Jones and the game mgmt skills would help the club and Burns and also allow them to play another way.

Didn't Dupuy's contract get bought out early by Stade as well?.

That wasn't amicable though. Tigers demanded a good chunk of cash from Stade before agreeing to release Dupuy's registration. The other examples were more how I'd see it going.

Do clubs have to buy in a marquee player?

I can't see us getting any one (sadly) it would go against a lot of the ethos that Connor is building in the squad and depressingly we don't have the money either.

Living in dreamland for a moment, if we were to sign a marquee player then i'd love one of Bismark Du Plessis, Beast or one of the the Franks brothers. ]

think its optional. we already approached Bismarck, he asked for 500k!

Twelvetrees off to Gloucester.

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Billy-Twelvetrees-set-leave-Leicester-Tigers-end/story-14995051-detail/story.html

A blow for Tigers. From the sound of it Billy said "I want to be first choice" and Cockers couldn't or wouldn't guarantee that. I guess only time will tell if it was right to back AA ahead of Billy but I think Billy's attitude is disappoiting although given his treatment understandable. Looks like we will be signing a new 10 or 10/12 with Bowden and Gopperth being linked.

Fuimaono-Sapolu is rumoured to be released from Gloucester so i guess hes a straight replacement. I think his style will suit Gloucester more, he plays with too much flair to stay with Leicester.

How is Billy's attitude dissapointing? He coud be frst choice twelve in nearly any other team but instead he's been stuck behind a very good but not great 12 at Leicester and then switched about and dropped on a whim by Cockerill.

I'm pleased he's off and think he'll be very good for Glos, him and Burns will be electric next season.

Just gutted we couldn't sign him.

Bathite wrote:think its optional. we already approached Bismarck, he asked for 500k!

Poopie hell, so he'll be off to France then if he does go anywhere. His parents definately taught him to know his worth!

Flaws did what tigers should have done. The guarenteed billy the 12 shirt and paid him the big time wages. If that meant sacrificing Allen then so be it.

Back to needing a 10/12, defence coach, number 8 and wingers.

And a new head coach as well Sam?

Well O'Connor is the head coach and yes I think he should go. Whether the Director of Rugby goes with him I'm not sure. There have been rumours of Tigers looking to add to the coaching team but none have materialized. If that is down to Cockers then it might be that he does go.

Pm76 wrote:Twelvetrees off to Gloucester.

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Billy-Twelvetrees-set-leave-Leicester-Tigers-end/story-14995051-detail/story.html

A blow for Tigers. From the sound of it Billy said "I want to be first choice" and Cockers couldn't or wouldn't guarantee that. I guess only time will tell if it was right to back AA ahead of Billy but I think Billy's attitude is disappoiting although given his treatment understandable. Looks like we will be signing a new 10 or 10/12 with Bowden and Gopperth being linked.

Oh please take him!

Geordie I'd rather not.

Any LI fans that can confirm that Adam Thompstone is out of contract at the end of the season. There's a post linking him with a move to us on the Tigers offy board and I was wondering how likely that will be?

Thompstone and Benjamin in? Tait or Murphy at full back and that is an improved back three on this year.

Thompston looked pretty good last season, I think he's been struggling with injury though (?)

Still no news on any Quins signings though...ho hum

Thompstone is indeed out of contract at the end of the season and I expect him to go. Others who are out of contract off the top of my head include:

Dermody, Rautenbach (retiring), Buckland, Blaney, Kennedy (off to Toulon), Casey (retiring), Johnson, Roche, Siggery, Sinclair, Alexander, Hodgson (Worcester?), Bowden, Jarvis, Delon (Toulon), Spratt.

Will have probably forgotten some from that list.

did siggery and spratt only sign a one year contract? they only moved to the Madejski stadium last summer.

Still no news on any Quins signings though...ho hum.

How many signings do you really need at Quins Yappy? Other than poor Ollie Smith aren't you likely to retain the majority of the team you have. A scrummaging tighthead and a massive second row and you're pretty set.

Thompstone is indeed out of contract at the end of the season and I expect him to go

He played well off the bench against us. Any injuries issues he has will probably encourage Leicester as it'll increase the chance of them arguing down his salary demands and therefore slip him under the cap a bit easier.

George Skivington is off to London Irish next season.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

We were only interested in Stanko because his contract was up, but he resigned with you, so not available anymore anyways.

He might be if Mullan was to sign. May release him early from his contract in order that he could sign for somebody else in a similar way we did with Danny Hipkiss.

That just about evens out having to live in Leicester

Pfft as if they bother actually living in Leicester. Leicester is a dump where as Leicestershire is full of beautiful countryside and nice towns like Oadby (where the training ground is) and Market Harborough (where Castro's second restaurant is). No one from Leicester who has any sense lives in Leicester they live in the shire.

Oadby! I always thought that was a dump! tbh i havent seen much of it!

And Market Bosworth....had a few pints there over the years....

I always thought that was a dump! tbh i havent seen much of it!.

Think it depends on which bit you're in. Personally I live in the north of the county (near Loughborough) so don't know much about it. The bit round the Oval Park training ground is alright. People tell me it's nice but I've never bothered to explore it.

pioden gorllewin wrote:did siggery and spratt only sign a one year contract? they only moved to the Madejski stadium last summer.

Yep!

Going back a bit I reread the ESPN link on the salary cap. Although it says the qualification for a marque signing isn't confirmed it does say that players at the club can be included.

The exact detail of the qualification criteria has yet to be agreed but the "rough parameters" agreed by the clubs allow for an overseas signing to excluded from the salary cap or for a player acquired from a rival English club to be discounted. However, in the case of the latter, the player has to have been with the club for "a period of time".

Premiership Rugby explained that the policy, that for example could see Leicester could exclude Ben Youngs if they wished but not Newcastle immediately after signing him, is intended to, "ensure as far as possible that clubs keep players they have developed and there isn't an inflationary market in top English players moving from club to club".

Although it's terribly written it says that Leicester could exclude Ben Youngs from the cap. No reason why it couldn't be Castro instead, he's been at Leicester for 6(?) years now.

My brother used to live in Leicester an I've been there a bit. Didn't seem that bad. But then I grew up in Stoke, lived in Swansea for 3 years and currently live in Hull. I prefer them all to Bath where I lived for a year.

HammerofThunor wrote:My brother used to live in Leicester an I've been there a bit. Didn't seem that bad. But then I grew up in Stoke, lived in Swansea for 3 years and currently live in Hull. I prefer them all to Bath where I lived for a year.

It's not that bad at all since they've spent money on doing up the centre.

He lived in the Phoenix building in the centre. Depends what you want from somewhere to live.

Funnily enough I've lived in those areas all my life and never had any trouble. My brother went to uni in Durham and got mugged three times in a year. He has got a punchable face IMO.

[NB I did almost get into a fight with two guys on Swansea beach for being English, but a mate of theirs stopped them. Lucky devils, they could have twisted their ankles chasing after me]

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Still no news on any Quins signings though...ho hum.

How many signings do you really need at Quins Yappy? Other than poor Ollie Smith aren't you likely to retain the majority of the team you have. A scrummaging tighthead and a massive second row and you're pretty set.

Sam that is basically it. We'll only lose a couple of players I assume but we really need a little more spice in the pack. Has Slater resigned? We can swap for Smith

Not you're all right. Ed Slater is staying with us thank you very much. As far as I'm aware he signed a new deal before Christmas having signed a 1 year extension in the summer. He has come on very nicely this season and I'd hope would be here for a while yet (he is a Leicester boy after all, though slighly travelled).

I'd love Ollie to return but it would be sentimentality more than anything else, maybe he'll come on a pay as you play deal as we help him with rehab. He was pretty awesome at his peak and if returned to fitness could cover for Manu. Though the coaching team have been stung by the mass injury lists this season so that would probably be unlikely.

To be fair Quins could just go the Tigers route and go shopping in Newcastle. Hudson and Murray would answer your problems in regards to prop and lock and wouldn't break the bank.

Quins did a good job securing the youngsters early. I'd imagine though if they produce the same rugby next season they really will struggle to retain them all. James Johnston, Joe Marler, Turner-Hall & Matt Hooper should all be major targets when they come off contract.

Hudson and Murray would be excellent, is Goulding still around these days?

Yep we could strggle to keep some players but I think we've signed nearly all the big names on to longer contracts.

is Goulding still around these days?

Yes but seems to be a sick note.

Golding played well this weekend....with Shiells at TH.