Tigers youngster signs up for Glaws boiler-room

Dave Markham - should be a nice addition to James, Hamilton and Brown, he'll certainly learn a lot

Its great to see youngsters being signed up by Glos. Hopefully, they will continue this policy.

(breaking news - Henson signs )

2nd row is the weak link in Glaws at the moment (now we've stolen Attwood!! ) with James and Brown aging and Hamilton getting fatter by the year. Suspect he'll be given a few chances if he's worth it.

Surely a better policy would be to develope their own youngsters like Tigers do (who absolutley dont sign all their players from Newcastle *cough*)

Good luck to you lad *mutters TRAITOR under breath*

Despite the fact he came from the Sale academy??

Poorly kept secret this. I personally don't know a huge amount about him, my Leicester mates are a bit upset about it. This could be for a number of reasons:

1. He has gone to Gloucester.
2. One of my friend particularly rates him and think Leicester have dropped a clanger with this one.
3. My Leicester supporting friends worry that their academy players are sick of being ignored and are starting to move on. One of my mates said 'How long until we move a Ben Youngs on?
4. Leicester's academy has been brilliant for a long time, which as a Newcastle fan, upsets me to consider the number of our players they are taking.

Does this guy have the potential then? Not really heard much about him to be honest.

bathmad wrote:Despite the fact he came from the Sale academy??

Didnt know that , I assumed hed come from the Leeds one like all the non Newcastle players do

Theres plenty of Tigers academy players who are retained when they graduate, or given dual registartion with second tier sides to prove their worth. Trouble is not many do.
I think most fans are more uncomfortable with players like 36 who clearly have massive potential but still dont get a look in with the first team. Sometimes it does takle a bit of luck though, England only have Ben Youngs because Harry Ellis never got over being kicked in the knee. Farrell has only come intro the mix because of injuries to those ahead of him too.

The new cap rules and payments from the RFU shoudl encourage clubs to retain academy garduates even if they dont intend giveing them many games. Maybe at some point Baths will start producing some players for them so they can loose their growing repuation as checkbook charlies.

"Leicester has a tendency to bring in older players rather than give younger ones a chance.

"If I had stayed at Leicester I would have been eighth or ninth choice, but at Gloucester I'll be much higher up the pecking order."

behind those old timers like Kitchener, Mafi, Slater and Green.
Good luck to him but the four listed there are hardly old timers...
There are young players I think Cockerill has underused but I think it is fair to say there have been plenty of chances for young players at lock, if they've played well enough to take their chance so I'm not going to lose too much sleep over him moving on.

bathmad, our 2nd row needed strengthening in terms of depth, but you've not signed a starter from us. Attwood's form has not been at the levels of 2 years ago for some time. Hamilton & Brown (Bath have tried to sign both in the last year) are the starters. So we've managed for you to trick you into spedning a fortune on an over-rated player ... Of course had he stayed he'd be England's next big thing!

On a serious note, this seems to be a decent signing for us. I'm not expecting him to get much 1st team action this year, but we needed some young talent in the pack. Apparently he's been scouted by John Brain, who does know a thing or two about forwards!

I don't mind this signing as long as Big Jim remains the preferred starter at 4. He needs regular rugby to keep his beer gut in check.