Silly Season Transfer Rumours 17/18

First topic message reminder :

Rumours are that I want to move to another company because my boss is an @rse.

And there's something to those rumours, I can assure you.

mikey_dragon wrote:Tomas Francis linked with a move to Wales in order to enhance his team Wales credentials. Anyone know if there’s much truth in this?

Been an ongoing rumour since he made his debut for Wales. Be a bit of a surprise if he left the club that made him. Not like Wales are likely to drop him.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Tomas Francis linked with a move to Wales in order to enhance his team Wales credentials. Anyone know if there’s much truth in this?

Been an ongoing rumour since he made his debut for Wales. Be a bit of a surprise if he left the club that made him. Not like Wales are likely to drop him.

If his contract is up, does he not have to move to Wales to stay eligible?

As he is second choice at Exeter, I can see him moving come the end of his current contract.

Define second choice. He's started as many games as Williams this season hasn't he? Baxter is very good at rotating his front row resources.

Good point on the contract though. He could be one of the exceptions and picked anyway. Quality tightheads don't growing trees and keeping him at Exeter where his game time is carefully monitored and where the coaches have a reputation for developing front row players might be a smart move.

So Tigers signing a Argie 9 as injury cover.
Felipe Ezcurra

25 year old, former U20's captain, but just seems to be on the fringe of the Jaguares squad though.

Welly wrote: So Tigers signing a Argie 9 as injury cover.
Felipe Ezcurra

25 year old, former U20's captain, but just seems to be on the fringe of the Jaguares squad though.

Simmons and Harrison injured atm? if so with Lenny's niggle and likely England absences this is probably needed.

LondonTiger wrote:

Welly wrote: So Tigers signing a Argie 9 as injury cover.
Felipe Ezcurra

25 year old, former U20's captain, but just seems to be on the fringe of the Jaguares squad though.

Simmons and Harrison injured atm? if so with Lenny's niggle and likely England absences this is probably needed.

Think Harrison is nearly back though.
But yeh it's needed.

Welly wrote: So Tigers signing a Argie 9 as injury cover.
Felipe Ezcurra

25 year old, former U20's captain, but just seems to be on the fringe of the Jaguares squad though.

Cheap injury cover for a couple of months I'd have thought.

Rumours are that we have signed Fly half Tom Swiel with immediate effect.

And that we are due to sign Ealing Prop Tampin for next season.

Tim Swiel is a real good prem quality flyhalf or 15, not sure about his brother Tom.

Quins are probably a bit guilty of under utilising him, he is seriously rapid, good passing game, needs to work on his kicking game and game management. But a good Prem quality option to have.

Joel Hodgson just isn't coming on so I guess he'll be away and Swiel will be a good signing for us.

Im seriously underwhelmed by Flood aswell

Hodgson is a good option GF, he's just had a few off games. Swiel is ok but not exactly sure why he'd be a target apart from having a genuine 3rd choice option. We should really have kept Willis tbh.

We've been saying that for years Sgt. Hodgson just isn't going to be what we want...though I appreciate budget restrictions mean he is there.

Whats happening with Connon aswell?

Yeah losing Willis was a big blow. I still don't get that one.

You can't have 3 front line FH's though GF, there needs to be lower options in the squad. Hodgson is an able backup for me. He provides good impact and generally plays well when called upon.

I've not seen Swiel play for a while tbh, he looked ok in patches a few seasons back.

https://warriors.co.uk/2018/10/01/worcester-warriors-announce-new-ownership/

That's a good move for them, to finally get that off their backs.

Yes, great to have finally sorted out a buyer - hopefully it might bring some additional investment in players and stability to the club. Lots of unrest amongst the Worcester fans though about McCrory and his motives.

Since my last post the speculation on the Worcester message board has reached fever pitch with many posters  already completely disillusioned with the new buyers and the lack of any statement from them as yet. Some posters have been through publicly available records which seem to suggest (from what I can make out) that loans to buy the club have been leveraged against the P shares and that there is a clause in there that, if Worcester are relegated, the P shares can be sold. It has been further mooted that, if relegation transpired, this might be an opportunity for the other 12 P share holders to buy Worcester’s shares and ring fence the league. At that point Worcester become a Championship team at best and Sixways' assets are stripped and further profits made for the investors.

I hope that this is all just paranoia but it does seem to have a certain convenience to it.

Time will tell I suppose but supporter morale is very low already. All the team can do is try and win and therefore stay up. This starts with a massive home match against Bristol tomorrow.

Well today must have cheered them up

Indeed Heaf! Certainly cheered me up anyway!!

That wasn't really a win it was a massacre.

Probably should have a new thread for the season, but there's rumours flying around that Christian Wade is quitting Wasps and moving to the US to take a shot at the NFL

BamBam wrote:Probably should have a new thread for the season, but there's rumours flying around that Christian Wade is quitting Wasps and moving to the US to take a shot at the NFL

Daily Mail has started ths one. There's no comment from Wade, Wasps or any NFL team, so we'll have to wait.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-6292533/Christian-Wade-dramatically-abandons-rugby-career-play-NFL.html

He's still under contract with Wasps, and no NFL team will buy out for an unknown quantity, so either he would have to go with their blessing, pay them himself, or exercise a retirement clause - if he has one - and hope it can stand up legally.

Alternatively, there's nothing in this, and the Daily Mail has extrapolated from the fact Wade has worked with an NFL coach.

If he does go, then Premiership teams will be wary of signing anyone called  "Christian", given Christian Scotland-Williamson already went over to the NFL

The Times also reporting on Wade's immediate departure, alongside suggestions that Fekitoa will replace Le Roux as a marquee signing next season.

LondonTiger wrote:The Times also reporting on Wade's immediate departure, alongside suggestions that Fekitoa will replace Le Roux as a marquee signing next season.

Independent reporting Wade feels disilludsioned with rugby but has no direct quotations from anyone. Press appears to be expecting confirmation later.

BBC reporting it straight.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/45911641

Rugby Fan wrote:

BamBam wrote:Probably should have a new thread for the season, but there's rumours flying around that Christian Wade is quitting Wasps and moving to the US to take a shot at the NFL

Daily Mail has started ths one. There's no comment from Wade, Wasps or any NFL team, so we'll have to wait.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-6292533/Christian-Wade-dramatically-abandons-rugby-career-play-NFL.html

He's still under contract with Wasps, and no NFL team will buy out for an unknown quantity, so either he would have to go with their blessing, pay them himself, or exercise a retirement clause - if he has one - and hope it can stand up legally.

Alternatively, there's nothing in this, and the Daily Mail has extrapolated from the fact Wade has worked with an NFL coach.

If he does go, then Premiership teams will be wary of signing anyone called  "Christian", given Christian Scotland-Williamson already went over to the NFL

A) The Solomona case showed you can change sport and sod the contract.
B) The buyout of his contract would be pocket change to the NFL.
C) Doesn't really matter he'll be back inside a year anyway.

Wasps were fined earlier this year for "overrunning their limit" in relation to the salary cap. ie they spent more than the cap (40k more) but not deliberately (insert comment here).

I have heard whispers they may be at risk of exceeding the cap again - and if so this would be deemed a breach with more serious consequences. If true they may be willing to just rip up a contract.

https://www.premiershiprugby.com/2017-2018/premiership-rugby-statement-wasps/

Wade quitting rugby is quite insane, I really wasn't seeing that one coming.

Lawes has extended his contract with Saints.

Rugby Fan wrote:

BamBam wrote:Probably should have a new thread for the season, but there's rumours flying around that Christian Wade is quitting Wasps and moving to the US to take a shot at the NFL

Daily Mail has started ths one. There's no comment from Wade, Wasps or any NFL team, so we'll have to wait.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-6292533/Christian-Wade-dramatically-abandons-rugby-career-play-NFL.html

He's still under contract with Wasps, and no NFL team will buy out for an unknown quantity, so either he would have to go with their blessing, pay them himself, or exercise a retirement clause - if he has one - and hope it can stand up legally.

Alternatively, there's nothing in this, and the Daily Mail has extrapolated from the fact Wade has worked with an NFL coach.

If he does go, then Premiership teams will be wary of signing anyone called  "Christian", given Christian Scotland-Williamson already went over to the NFL

Nah it came from rugbyinsideline on Twitter first.

Hugh's to Bristol is flying round the social media at the moment.
£500,000 wages allegedly

Nathan Hughes?

Michelle Campagnaro to Wasps from Chiefs also doing the rounds.

Yes Nathan Hughes . Poor typo from myself there. All apologies

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/45971009
Campagnaro to leave Chiefs. Considering he hasn't played for them for quite some time I guess this has been coming.

Sorry Sam...just saw your post.
No mention of Wasps though.

Wade confirmed as leaving for the NFL.

Good luck to him, shame we couldn't see him break some more records in the AP first though.

propdavid_london wrote:Sorry Sam...just saw your post.  
No mention of Wasps though.

I assumed it was Nathan Hughes I just thought I'd check before offering an opinion and potentially looking stupid (more stupid than normal).

Silly move for him. If they get relegated he'll either be without a club and trying to sign for someone else who can fit him in the cap or playing in the Championship. If they stay up he will be in a relegation scrap again next year with no top level European rugby to show what he can do for England.

Campagnaro is an odd one. He had a spell at Chiefs where he was scoring for fun, then got injured. Exeter look like they could do with some additional cutting edge in the midfield after failing to win two games in Europe they really ought to have. He'd have brought something different.

Jason Tovey has signed for the Drags - 3rd times a charm

I was listening to Ugo Monye talk about Wade (is there a more boring sounding pundit out there right now?) and just couldn't agree with anything he was saying.

He said it was a travesty (or something along those lines, I think I drifted off) the way Wade had been treated by England. Totally lost with that one by the way.....he was capped, told to work on his game by 2 head coaches and has never really managed to reach the required level expected. If anything, he was treat quite well, at least he got pointers on what to improve on.

I was a terrible 10/12/15/6/4, no England coach ever called me up to tell me what to work on to get in the England squad. I was just left to rot......absolute travesty.

Nathan Hughes will stay at Wasps if they match the offer from Bristol. While I will never be over critical of a player trying to maximise their income in what is a short career, I do have a couple of thoughts:

We know Nathan is not the brightest bulb, so I wonder who is advising him. Are they looking after his best interests or their own? After all he is more likely to get England money while at Wasps, but an agent probably gets a cut from any new club deal.

Hughes has demonstrated he is a mercenary chasing the dollar in the past, ever since he took up a scholarship to a school in NZ. He turned down the chance to play in the last WC for  Fiji to protect his soon to arrive EQ status. More than anything this was about maximising his club revenue, being much less valuable as an NEQ.

I do not know his family status back in Fiji, but many players in NH are funding their entire villages.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:I was listening to Ugo Monye talk about Wade (is there a more boring sounding pundit out there right now?) and just couldn't agree with anything he was saying.

He said it was a travesty (or something along those lines, I think I drifted off) the way Wade had been treated by England. Totally lost with that one by the way.....he was capped, told to work on his game by 2 head coaches and has never really managed to reach the required level expected. If anything, he was treat quite well, at least he got pointers on what to improve on.

I was a terrible 10/12/15/6/4, no England coach ever called me up to tell me what to work on to get in the England squad. I was just left to rot......absolute travesty.

Haven't read the article but saw the 'cips could be next' line and it did get me annoyed. It is not the job of England to keep individual players happy. Their job is to win rugby matches.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:I was listening to Ugo Monye talk about Wade (is there a more boring sounding pundit out there right now?) and just couldn't agree with anything he was saying.

He said it was a travesty (or something along those lines, I think I drifted off) the way Wade had been treated by England. Totally lost with that one by the way.....he was capped, told to work on his game by 2 head coaches and has never really managed to reach the required level expected. If anything, he was treat quite well, at least he got pointers on what to improve on.

I was a terrible 10/12/15/6/4, no England coach ever called me up to tell me what to work on to get in the England squad. I was just left to rot......absolute travesty.

To answer the bit in bold, yes, but not many. I liked Monye as a player and he seems a very affable personality off the field. As a relatively inexperienced pundit he seems to have fallen into the familiar trap of thinking saying something pointless all the time is better than saying something incisive once in a while.

On the Wade stuff, I'm a fan of Wade and wish he had more chances with England. Monye is as usual hyperbolic and I don't think it's a travesty by any means but I wish he'd had more of a shot. His defensive work is/was poor but if you list England wing selection in the time he put his hand up for selection:

Ashton - Comparatively abysmal in defence
May - Prior to recent improvements his work under the high ball could make fans watch from behind the sofa
Yarde - Poor positioning and for a powerful man he's weak in tackle
Watson - Strong in the air but if I had to pick him or Wade to make a match saving tackle I might unenthusiastically choose Wade tbh
Brown - The painful results of Brown out of position on the wing are well known
Manu - Only picked for one game out of position but again it wasn't really a success
Nowell - Excellent defensively
Daly - Not as strong as Nowell but the best on the wing defensively after him from this list
Solomona - See Ashton

It's hardly been a parade of defensively sound wingers picked instead of him but the strongest argument for Wade getting a run of starts came a fair few years back now, around the time Gatland selected him as an injury replacement for the Lions.

Looking at options now Nowell and Daly are streets ahead defensively, May has improved his all round game in a way Wade didn't and Watson whilst comparably abysmal in the tackle is incomparable under the high ball. Sadly the Wade debate passed by a few years back now which is likely why he's chosen to try a new challenge. I wish him all the best, it's going to take some serious graft to make the switch to gridiron at 27.

Schalk Brits has ended one of the shortest retirement periods, to sign for the Stormers in 2019.

Fluxy wrote:Schalk Brits has ended one of the shortest retirement periods, to sign for the Stormers in 2019.

He fancies one more crack at a WC!

Falcons sign John Hardie with immediate effect.

Very happy with this one!

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Falcons sign John Hardie with immediate effect.

Very happy with this one!

And Newcastle is well known for it's nightlife, could be interesting

Nope....Hardie is on good authority there is zero nightlife in Newcastle.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Nope....Hardie is on good authority there is zero nightlife in Newcastle.

Hardie being sent to live up in Alnwick and commute in for games and training. Nothing but invigorating North Sea air for him.

Quality player. How long as he signed for? Surprised that someone like Sarries haven't had a look at him, they could use an openside and his uncompromising style would fit in. He works in the Falcons backrow as well and there's now a lot of physical and combative backrow players up there.

Don't get that signing...yes he's a decent player but we have a very strong back row stable. Unless we're carrying some long term injuries.