Great News for Wales

Luke Charteris is officially available for Wales vs Australia...!!!

Rob Howley wrote: "We are delighted to have come to an agreement with Perpignan which will allow Luke to be available to be considered for selection for the Wallabies game," said Howley, who travelled to France alongside head coach Warren Gatland last month to begin discussions about the release of Wales' overseas contingent.
"This is a major step forward for us and shows that our trip out to France to talk face to face with the clubs has paid dividends.

"We have reached a compromise which allows Perpignan to have Luke available to them when they need him most and see no reason why we can't build on this relationship in the future."

Lets hope the hard work of coaches and the WRU to assist Welsh overseas player release continues. A number of French clubs do seem to want their International non French signings to continue their International careers.

The compromise is that he stays with Perpignan for one of the other weekends. He isnt available for all 4 internationals they have just shifted the period when he is free

Sadly we have a number of welsh based locks that are as likely to be selected for Aus as he is. The problem area we have is the props, and suprisingly, loose head in particular, if we could get a deal where Geth misses out on Argentina and Paul James misses out on Australia, but both are available else where then that would be some good news

It is all very promising though. We get him when we need him.

The WRU and our coaches are trying hard to cope with the draw on our top players to go to France or England for more lucrative deals.

The WRU and the regions can not and will not financially compete against them, we can't organise a tax incentive like the Irish either.

We have to face facts that as long as England and France pay massive wages we will lose top players to the highest bidders. And even if we can increase earnings for top lads at regions in the future then we can't stop wealthier clubs increasing their offers. We can't enter a foolish arms race.

Positive diplomacy like this is great news.

I think the bigger problem is coach - now if we could agree a deal where Joe Schmidt comes in to coach Wales for the AIs but sits out Leinster games against Welsh regions...

lostinwales wrote:The compromise is that he stays with Perpignan for one of the other weekends. He isnt available for all 4 internationals they have just shifted the period when he is free

That's right Perpignan v Biarritz is more important than Argen who they play on Dec 1st. I guess they decided they wanted Hook for both fixtures?

Smirnoffpriest wrote:I think the bigger problem is coach - now if we could agree a deal where Joe Schmidt comes in to coach Wales for the AIs but sits out Leinster games against Welsh regions...

A better bet would be to put a spy into the Leinster camp and work out who their Schmidt replacement will be when he takes his leave. I'm sure they're already scouting the world to find his backup.... now if you could get to him first - spanner in the well oiled Leinster works!

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:

lostinwales wrote:The compromise is that he stays with Perpignan for one of the other weekends. He isnt available for all 4 internationals they have just shifted the period when he is free

That's right Perpignan v Biarritz is more important than Argen who they play on Dec 1st. I guess they decided they wanted Hook for both fixtures?

WRU are still negotiating with USAP over Hook and RC Toulon over Gethin Jenkins.

By the way in true BBC fashion the journalist mixed up when Wales play Argentina and Australia.

AI fixtures are as follows, courtesy of the BBc fixtures page on the same website as the link above, (research is a tricky thing at the BBC obviously):-



Saturday, 10 November 2012
Wales v Argentina, 14:30

Friday, 16 November 2012
Wales v Samoa, 19:30

Saturday, 24 November 2012
Wales v New Zealand, 17:15

Saturday, 1 December 2012
Wales v Australia, 14:30


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/fixtures/4776295.stm