Seems lots of rumours of players leaving

Reading the scarlets fever forum today it seems like cardiff blues are after lou reed & northampton saints are after jon davies. Added to this sale/gloucester interested in steve jones and dominic day to london irish rumour - does seem there could be a possible exodus from the club this summer. Worrying also there doesn't seem any sound of players coming in, will we contiune to plug the gaps in our squad with youth next season? I know it's worked in the past, but to progress from the group stages of the heino we should be strengthening our squad. I know this is all agent talk/ not guarenteed but we could be losing :

Steven Jones : Sale/Gloucester
Jon Davies: Northampton Saints
Dominic Day: London Irish
Lou Reed: Cardiff Blues
Rhys Thomas: Possible retirement unfortunately

Ive been encouraged by the growing attendance at parc y Scarlets this season and the ''hwyl'' in the barn. Hopefully these are only rumours. Be a shame if these departures become reality and dampen the growing momentum within the region.

Either way ymlaen y scarlets!

All the talk in the Rugby Paper is of Day joining Bath, though Irish need someone to replace Kennedy.

Yea, pretty sure the Day rumour was to Bath. We have got Skivington to replace Kennedy, so would hope that we would be investing elsewhere.

Talk of Ben Morgan to Glaws is back doing the rounds (along with Jimmy Cowan).

Morgan looked the real deal yesterday. Injects some dog to the English backrow and stood out in an otherwise mediocre affair.

Jimmy Cowan would be a big signing for Glaws. That would be some backline next year, no offence to Rory Lawson.

wouldn't be suprised if an english club offers a transfer fee for morgan's services this summer, rather than wait for the scramble for his signature when he's contract runs out. it would be a large sum of money that i'd imagine the scarlet's board would struggle to turn down.

Morgan going or not may depend on who the next England manager/coach is.

If they haven't got a ' play in England to be selected' criteria then maybe he won't go. If staying at PYS affects or limits his England chances then he may feel he has to go.

It's a strange one for Morgan to consider. He has no problem playing in Wales as he joined Scarlets before the non-"overseas" ruling came in.

Scarlets appear to be willing to cash in on him now, providing the compo suits, in which case he can be assured only the richest clubs will express an interest, meaning he'd be guaranteed a little more (not much, granted) security than if he joined, say, Wasps. However, his value is built on promise. Another season in the Principality and in an England jersey puts him out of contract and gives him the liberty to choose between what will no doubt be a plethora of clubs vying for his considerable services.

If Bath are after him, I hope it's now, cause Simon Taylor's not getting younger and not only that, I think Morgan is the better player full stop.

The overseas thing isn't a ruling. It's the fact he's not going to be released by the Scarlets for the addition training time. That will cause problems. Doesn't matter when he signed for them or for how long.

Jon Davies would be a loss, but we'd cope with the others.

These rumours are often spread by agents to get their players better deals.

Derwyn Jones is a Kumquat then.

not sure how accurate it is, but wikipedia has it that dominic day has signed for bath on a two year deal :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Day

Didn't Davies say he was staying at the Scarlets in a BBC article not so long ago?

foxy did say:

"It is a great place to be a part of and hopefully I will be able to stay," Davies told the South Wales Evening Post.

"There is a huge amount of ability in the squad."

Scarlets head coach Nigel Davies is confident he can hang on to Davies, who is part of a talented young backline which also includes George North and Scott Williams.

"Jon has made it quite clear himself that he wants to stay at the Scarlets," said Davies.

"He is enjoying his rugby. He is enjoying the enviromnement and we are in negotiations with Jon."

But who knows, maybe is agent persuaded him into moving. Probably the offers from France and England would be 3 times more than what the scarlets can offer him.

He might want to stay, depends on what contract we can offer him.

The only one I can sort of see going is Day really, especailly as Reed has now been picked over him for Wales, and I would argue taht Day has been much the better of the two this season, so he may not see all that much incentive to stay.

We'd cope without all the others going apart from Foxy. We need him to stay.

apparently we haven't offered lou reed a contract yet. suprised if that's true, especially if we are losing dominic day.

I reckon that's Garin Jenkins influence - if so thank the stars!

Apparently the Davies deal is done.

The Wikipedia entry for Dom Day is cobblers. Anyone can update an entry, so someone's having a giraffe.

from bbc online:

Nigel Davies admits 18 Scarlets' contracts expire at the end of the season amid a "constant battle" to have a competitive squad next season.

Davies' admission came as he responded to reports that Gloucester hope to sign his England number eight Ben Morgan.

Wales' four regions have introduced a £3.5m salary cap for next season.

"It's a constant battle with resources at the moment to make sure we can put the best possible squad together," said head coach Davies.

"It's part of the job that I have to do.

"It's not always pleasant, but I'm working to a finite number and I have to be able to produce the best squad that I can for that.

"And that's part of the process that I'm undergoing right now."

Morgan's contract with the Scarlets runs until the end of the 2012-13 season.

But since being involved in England's Six Nations campaign, Morgan, 23, has attracted the attention of Bath and London Irish as well as Gloucester.

Among the Scarlets out of contract is Wales record cap-holder Stephen Jones, 34, whose current deal deal expires at the end of this season.

Davies says the number of his players whose futures are uncertain matches the figures at their rival Welsh regions the Ospreys, Cardiff Blues and Newport Gwent Dragons.

He added: "We don't talk about anybody individually. What I will say is that we have 18 players out of contract, like most regions do - that sort of number - and our first priority is to work with those players.

Continue reading the main story
“"I think a lot of the players individually are doing very well and there's an interest out there. But in Ben [Morgan]'s case in particular, we're completely in control of that situation”

Nigel Davies
Scarlets boss
"In my role as coach probably about five per cent of my time is spent on the rugby field.

"The rest of it is away from that in the management of the players and a big part of that, of course, is putting together competitive squads.

"So in a professional rugby environment that's a fact of life.

"And that's what I have to deal with. It's not easy, but lots of jobs aren't easy.

"I enjoy what I do and it's a challenge and we're working through that challenge.

"We've done particularly well at it over the years and I'm sure we'll do well against this season."

Morgan is among a host of Scarlets to have forced his way into Test selection in recent seasons amid earlier financial constraints that led to them concentrating on developing home-grown talent rather than recruiting established players.

Davies said: "Ben is contracted to us for another season. At the moment we're in the middle of renegotiating contracts and putting together a competitive squad for next year within the confines of the resources that we've got.

"So we're looking at all the possibilities and what's available to us and over the course of the next couple of months we'll put that squad together.

"We've had several approaches for lots of our players at the moment.

"I think a lot of the players individually are doing very well and there's an interest out there.

"But in Ben's case in particular, we're completely in control of that situation."

Recently-capped Jonathan Davies, George North, Tavis Knoyle, Rhys Priestland, Rob McCusker and Josh Turnbull have been followed into the Wales squad by Scott Williams and Liam Williams.

And Aaron Shingler made his Wales debut at openside flanker in their win over Scotland at the weekend while lock Lou Reed took his Test bow as a replacement.

Hookers Ken Owens and erstwhile Wales captain Matthew Rees are also among the Scarlets' highly-regarded players.

Having a glut of talented players has prompted fears over how the Scarlets can hold on to them with English clubs having a higher salary cap and French clubs enjoying unrestricted spending power.

The Welsh Rugby Union is soon to receive a report into the funding of the four regions, who are battling poor crowds in a difficult economy

18 out of contract? well that's a lot less than last season where I think we re-signed 26+

I'm not too worried, all teams are going to at some point have plenty of players out of contract.

Thing is if a club is smart its get them signed up mid season.
Ulster for example only have 6, full professionals, not signed up for next year and of the front line players only the backrow is to be decided and even there we already have a Ferris, Wilson, Henry line up in the bag.

Leaving so many late is dangerous

yes but only about 5-6 are our front line players, the rest are development/academy players.

Plus, there's still 3-4 months of the season to go so it's not exactly completely last minute.

What we did last years was announce all of our re-signings right after the end of the 6Nations. I can see us doing the same again this season.

Yeah 18 players out of contract doesn't seem too bad (same as most of the other regions apparently) Nige seems to have a pretty clear idea of who he want's to keep, and where he wants to strengthen to make the squad competitive next season. Keeping Jon Davies is a priority thought!!! Depending on the Rhys Thomas sitiation and whether Manu is leaving in the summer, another TH is needed. I can also see another lock coming in, and either Reed or Day going. If we can get a few quality players in these positions, I think our squad will be pretty strong next season

I hope we hold on to Manu now that it looks like Rhys T won't realistically be coming back, otherwise we may be stuck with signing Cai Griffiths!!


Foxy is indeed crucial. We need to keep the likes of Priestland, North, Foxy, Scott Williams together. I reckon if one goes, they'll all start to filter away.

I think the money we are saving is just going to secure the likes of Foxy. Can't see us making a big name 2nd row signing or anything, so keeping Day and Reed is pretty important also.

Nige is a clever guy though, he did really well with re-signings last season, so I trust that he'll do the same again this season.

dreamer:

Do you think the Cai Griffiths rumour is true? Guess he's out of contract this summer and the O's do have Adam Jones,Aaron Jarvis and Joe Rees in that position. Sure if Cai does come in, Garin will sort out his scrummaging.

rugbydreamer wrote:yes but only about 5-6 are our front line players, the rest are development/academy players.

Understand - 18 is not a big number then.

I believe most clubs will not have their development or Academies sorted till later.

We don't finalize our Academy till September - it part depending on educational decisions by 18 year olds as awell as how others have progressed in summer training camps

yep that seems similar to what the Scarlets to geoff. Our problem is that we've had so many more new call ups/Wales caps this season again (such as Reed, Shingler, Liam Williams etc) when it comes to their contract negotiations they are going to be able to hanker for more money - where we're going to find it all from I don't know! Tis a very tricky time for us.

Pioden - not sure about Cai but it is the one rumour that isn't going away. Personally, I don't want him anywhere near the time, but with our limited resources, he might be the only one we can afford.