The rumour mill

First topic message reminder :

Whilst unofficial negotiations will have been taking place for some time, it is only a few weeks until official approaches can be made and so the rumour mill is in full swing. Whilst ignoring what your mate's cousin's goldfish heard, what are the rumours you've heard coming and going from your club?


Rumours so far...
Geoff Parling to Glaws staying at Tigers
Matt Garvey to Quins, Saints, Glaws & Bath...
Nick Kennedy to everyone
Dave Attwood to Glaws
Sean Cronin to Connacht
Jonathan Joseph to Bath - confirmed
Matthew Rees to Cardiff confirmed
Stephen Shingler to a Welsh club confirmed to Scarlets
Adam Warren to Glaws and Cardiff
Kahn Fotuali'I to Toulouse - leaving but to Saints
Matt Kvesic to Tigers, Glaws, Saints and Sarries - confirmed to Glaws
Castro, John Smit and Claasens to Toulon - Castro & Claasens confirmed to Toulon
Alex Corbisiero to Saints confirmed
James Johnston to numerous French clubs & Sarries - confirmed to Sarries
Anthony Watson to Tigers & Bath
Tiny to Racing Metro
Sailosi Tagicakibau to Toulon
Toby Faletau to Bath
Billy Vunipola to Sarries - confirmed
Rhys Gill, Martin Roberts, Eiffion Lewis-Roberts, Gareth Delve, Dwayne Peel to Cardiff
Chris Cochrane to Connacht
Fionn Carr to Connacht confirmed
Newcastle starting XV to Tigers
George Ford to Saints or Bath confirmed he's leaving, but to who...
Stephen Donald to anyone who'll have him
Jonny Sexton to Racing confirmed he's leaving...
PDJ to Quins & Wasps - confirmed to Quins
BJ Botha to Toulon
Mike Ross to Munster signed a new contract
Richie Gray, Rob Miller & Kearnan Myall to Glaws - [b]Gray confirmed to Castres, Myall confirmed to Wasps, Miller staying at Sale (TRP not very accurate with these ones!!)
Stephen Myler to Tigers - staying at Saints
Matt Mulan to Wasps - confirmed
Ryan Lamb to France, Exeter or Wuss
Andy Saull to Exeter or Newcastle
James Scaysbrook to Tigers - staying at Exeter
Tom Johnson to Bath - re-signed with Exeter (how many Bath rumours are actually ever true??)
Mickey Young, Kieran Brookes to Bath - Brookes gone back to Newcastle on loan
Dan Carter, SBW, Dusatoir, McCaw to Sarries & under the salary cap too...
Gareth Maule to London Irish
Andy Goode to Newcastle, Dragons, Saints or KFC. - confirmed to Wasps
Steffan Jones to Wasps or London Welsh
Nick Robinson to Worcester or Dragons - going to Bristol
Joe Carlisle to Wasps - confirmed
James Hudson to Glaws - confirmed
Ian Nagle to Glaws
David Mele & Joel Kefi to Tigers
Sione Timani to Bath
Adam Ashley-Cooper to Leinster
Isa Nacewa to...

Kubri is an old school tighthead. He does the business in the tight and relies on players with numbers bigger than his to do the work in the loose.

Kahn Fotuali'I to Toulouse

Much truth in this? Kahn has been the one to single-handedly turn the Ospreys team around with his form and leadership. O's should be doing everything they can to hold onto him.

VinceWLB wrote:Kubriashvilli is a very very average TH, nothing to be very excited about, Toulon had clearly a weakness having him as 2nd choice behind the great Carl Hayman.

I'm a big fan of Kubs, he's an excellent scrummager. Hayman was very iffy in his first year and Kubs nailed that TH berth.

Morgannwg wrote:Is that the Clermont prop? Got to be fair to these French clubs though. They find massive front row guys from eastern europe and the Pacific and turn them into good front row players.

Who was the Waikato Cheifs prop last season? He was Samoan I believe and went to a french club. Looked a good player too.

You're thinking of Taumalolo there. I think he was pretty close to top try scorer in SuperRugby and was unstoppable a yard out! Now getting mullered in the scrums for Perpignan.

Yea Taumalolo was an odd choice for a top French side as he's not really known for his scrummaging, excellent winger though.

Maybe they should convert him to an 8. The French league is not a place to hide bad scrummaging. Have Perpignan still got Freshwater and Mas?

Mas is still at TH, playing better than last year and looking back to his best.

Freshwater retired last season, Schuster is their other LH.

Taumalolo would probably make a good 8, or 12...

Freshwater was immense the season before last, he literally looked 8 feet tall! A legend that we've all pretty much forgotten about now.

I actually would have Taumalolo at hooker, have the perfect size/dynamism for it but at 31 already it's surely too late for a change.

Cockers has pubically stated Castro is going nowhere. Toulon haven't contacted Tigers and would need to buy out Castro's meaty contract. Neither Castro or his agent have contacted the club to indicate his dissatisfaction with the working arrangement.

In other words it's all rumours or Tigers are shaping up to take a serious chunk of cash from Toulon.

Ahem...leave us alone please. We have no good players at the moment the academy has been closed down...in fact nothing at all of interest...so just pack your scouts off elsewhere...

Think you should be safe this season Geordie we've been linked with Catterick and Welch previously but it looks like we have other targets for this off season. Kvesic seems to be the big one.

We're pretty well stocked and will be more focussed on keeping what we've got.

Are you still being linked with Duffey? He's great in the loose, not bad in the scrum but struggles to hit a barn door in the lineout.

I'm going to start a rumour, but surely it is time that Jacob Rowan joined a premiership club? He signed a 1 year deal earlier in the year, so will be available to speak to clubs from March. Personally I feel he is the English openside with the most amount of potential and I really hope Glaws are chasing him...

Good shout, he was quite the player in the England age grade teams and has been in the Leeds team for a while now. I think every team outside of Quins, Worcester and Sarries will be chasing an openside.

Speaking of Sarries, how are the contracts for their opensides looking. Surely they can't keep all three and most clubs would happily help them out and take one of their hands. Saull in particular needs to move if he still has international aspirations.

Sam

I believe we are...though that last statement about his lineout has just dismayed me. Our current hooker Vickers is actually an excellent Hooker , tough , good scrummager and gets through his loose work...but he cant hit a barn door either...so why on earth are we going for another the same...

If thats the case id sooner just stick with Vickers as our scrum is a very powerful weapon.

PS Catterick is a curious one...most of thought he would be gunning for that 10 spot...but hes being used solely as a winger with Hodgson the one who seems destined to be our future 10.

I presume Catterick was looked at when he seemed to be heading down the fullback route. Playmaking fullbacks are constantly monitored bt Tigers such is the worry of a back three post Geordan. The game vs Glaws will only emphasise that concern.

Heard rumours of Miller and a bid for Cips as a 15 was confirmed last summer.

Duffey you may appreciate, he has a surprising turn of pace for a big bloke and is very aggressive. If your lineout is already ropey you might not notice the difference.

Daily Mail reporting today that Billy Vunipola will be signing a new Wasps deal to keep him at the club until 2015. Apparently set to sign this week.
Interest had already come in from Sarries & Leicester apparently.

If true - it's wonderful news for Wasps who have got a great nucleus of young English stars coming through.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2255432/Billy-Vunipola-set-sign-new-Wasps-deal.html#comments

Tigers have a selection of 8s on the books, can't see the entering a bidding war for Billy. Sarries I could see wanting both brothers especially given the age and firtness of their first choice backrow with Kruis having to cover 6 in recent weeks.

Would be a key signing for Wasps and there's no reason for him not to stay now Dai Young is putting a good side together. Wasps are in a good position and with good investment should only improve.

Seems certain that Corbs and JJ will be leaving Irish now. Even Brian Smith is convinced:

http://www.espnscrum.com/premiership-2012-13/rugby/story/175208.html

Chances of him going first must be fairly high

Two big losses for LI.

Any news on Garvey...as that could be a bigger loss than the rest.

From what I understand, Brian Smith has already put the club's best offer on the table, and wanted players re-signed for the end of November.

Doesn't look good for keeping players lik Garvey who are out of contract at the end of the season.

Free to talk to other clubs now, altho I'm sure a few agents have already been stoking the fire!

Apparently Smith agrees:

There are clubs who are very proactive at tapping up players," claims Smith. "I've no doubt a number of our lads have been worked on since very early in the season. Some clubs are paying £2m on their coaching staff. Some teams are cheating the salary cap and spending twice what we do on our squad.

Naughty beggars!

Wah wah wah ... ask your boss for a pay rise then

I doubt LW are exactly breaking the cap, Smith still cant match their awesomemight

An openside is high on Tigers priorities, local media have linked Kvesic again but also Wasps flanker Jonathon Poff who has found himself behind Haskell, Johnson and Vunipola in the backrow pecking order.

Smith is winging a fair bit, name and shame or stop moaning!

Poff is awesome. If Irish stay up I hope we are looking at him as a replacement for Gibson. Just the sort of 7 we need.

Heard from a very reliable source at Quins that J Johnston will be off to a unspecified French club for approx £300k a season.

Potentially its Racing Metro.

Hopefully Synckler has been eating his weetabix

yappysnap wrote:Heard from a very reliable source at Quins that J Johnston will be off to a unspecified French club for approx £300k a season.

Potentially its Racing Metro.

Hopefully Synckler has been eating his weetabix

Apparently F johnston has been released by Agen though, so maybe he could be picked up as a more or less like for like replacement (but younger and not as good, yet).

Sad times.

Scarlet who's F Johnston? Another brother?

CJ I guess it was kind of inevitable really, at least this'll free up a lump of cash for us.

Nephew, I think?

Ahh I see. To be fair I don't think we need him

How ready is Sinkler?

yappysnap wrote:Ahh I see. To be fair I don't think we need him

He's progressed a lot in the tight since he turned up, although on an off day JJ can be a penalty machine. He is a fearsome lump when he gets a big hit in though, and not too shabby in the loose.

I don't think we 'need' him as such, but he'll certainly be missed for a little while.

Sinkler has looked to be a bit of an animal. He's had sporadic appearances off the bench for Quins but not let anyone down.
Looked good pre-season matches.
Other Front row options for Quins - Lambert, Will Collier have all looked good.
Brooker was shaping up as a good hooker back-up to Grey before injury. And Rob Buchannan is filling that berth admirably.
Daryl Marfo, like Sinkler has made a few cameo appearances.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Heard from a very reliable source at Quins that J Johnston will be off to a unspecified French club for approx £300k a season.

Potentially its Racing Metro.

Hopefully Synckler has been eating his weetabix

Apparently F johnston has been released by Agen though, so maybe he could be picked up as a more or less like for like replacement (but younger and not as good, yet).

you do not want Falefa Johnston near your squad : sacked by Agen , played a couple of games only after returning with too many extra pounds from holidays and insulting his bosses on twitter. he wants to go to NZ apparently.

yappysnap wrote:Scarlet who's F Johnston? Another brother?

Either cousin or something. I think he is something like 20, has been at Toulouse, rumoured to be hanging around for a french cap, then got ditched picked up by Agen. Apparently they have let him go for being 'naughty' or so I heard on a different forum.

Morgannwg wrote:Kahn Fotuali'I to Toulouse

Much truth in this? Kahn has been the one to single-handedly turn the Ospreys team around with his form and leadership. O's should be doing everything they can to hold onto him.

To be honest the Ospreys will be hard pressed to keep him if another team are after him, as they are now working in the salary cap, and will eitehr need to sacrifice people to keep him or let him go.

Poff is awesome. If Irish stay up I hope we are looking at him as a replacement for Gibson.

Where's Gibson going?

To be honest the Ospreys will be hard pressed to keep him if another team are after him, as they are now working in the salary cap, and will eitehr need to sacrifice people to keep him or let him go.

The salary cap only effects the HEC squad. The number of players in a HEC squad is limited by the ERC. Currently they have 40 men in the squad funded by 3.5 million at an average of 87.5k per player. It's not like that is too harsh, as long as the player doesn't want crazy money it'll be fine.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Poff is awesome. If Irish stay up I hope we are looking at him as a replacement for Gibson.

Where's Gibson going?

To be honest the Ospreys will be hard pressed to keep him if another team are after him, as they are now working in the salary cap, and will eitehr need to sacrifice people to keep him or let him go.

The salary cap only effects the HEC squad. The number of players in a HEC squad is limited by the ERC. Currently they have 40 men in the squad funded by 3.5 million at an average of 87.5k per player. It's not like that is too harsh, as long as the player doesn't want crazy money it'll be fine.

Not sure if he is going anywhere, but the BBC report containing Brian Smith's take on the situation said that he hasn't signed a new contact yet alongside the likes of Corbisiero, Joseph and Garvey.

Alastair, I meant we didn't need F Johnston. I'd love us to keep JJ as he is to my mind one of the best props in the league and on his day totally unplayable in the scrums.

But being realistic we can't compete financially with the money bags abroad and him leaving would potentially free up a lot of coin.

PropD, yep we do seem to have quite a few options in the front row now. Didn't Synckler and Marfo both play in the A league final against Saracens?

Steve Shingler is apparently on his way back to the Scarlets.

The one rumour I have been hearing for a while is Mike Ross (Leinster) to move to Munster.

Apparently IRFU want Leinster to continue to develop Michael Bent who made his Ireland debut in the Autumn with Jamie Hagan as backup.

Ross would move to Munster on a central contract (paid by IRFU). He would replace the South African, BJ Botha. By all accounts Ross is open to this as he is from Munster and his family all live in Cork.

Munster will save a lot of money, IRFU will have another province with an Irish qualified starting tighthead, Ross is back home near his family and Leinster are replacing an aging prop to allow two younger ones to develop.

On paper, everyone wins.

whocares wrote:

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Heard from a very reliable source at Quins that J Johnston will be off to a unspecified French club for approx £300k a season.

Potentially its Racing Metro.

Hopefully Synckler has been eating his weetabix

Apparently F johnston has been released by Agen though, so maybe he could be picked up as a more or less like for like replacement (but younger and not as good, yet).

you do not want Falefa Johnston near your squad : sacked by Agen , played a couple of games only after returning with too many extra pounds from holidays and insulting his bosses on twitter. he wants to go to NZ apparently.

He also tried to get off with my girlfriend in a club once. So naturally he is scum!

formerly known as Sam wrote:Tigers have a selection of 8s on the books, can't see the entering a bidding war for Billy. Sarries I could see wanting both brothers especially given the age and firtness of their first choice backrow with Kruis having to cover 6 in recent weeks.

Would be a key signing for Wasps and there's no reason for him not to stay now Dai Young is putting a good side together. Wasps are in a good position and with good investment should only improve.

Vunipola has not yet made a decision.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/rugby_union/4721409/Billy-Vunipola-dismisses-claims-he-will-leave-Wasps-for-Saracens.html

Vunipola, 22, said: “Everyone makes an assumption about me and Saracens but I just want to play really well for Wasps.

“My contract ends this summer but I’ve made no decision.”

What I think might well happen is that Saracens sign Billy Vunipola and Andy Saull leaves.

I thought Billy V had just signed a 2 year deal at Wasps

Sgt_Pooly wrote:I thought Billy V had just signed a 2 year deal at Wasps

Link?

I just thought I'd read he'd signed a new deal