Hartley wasn't a hooker when he came over. I think the pop up thing was opposition fans who didn't understand what Saints were doing at scrum time, though - by the time he got that nickname they were murdering teams by isolating the tighthead and driving under and up.

Sam Aspland-Robinson was out with an ACL injury this season.

Fair enough. That explains that one. Interesting to see where he ends up assuming the injury doesn't have a long term impact

I’m not sure if Aspland-Robinson was let go or wanted to leave? He looked very good at U20 level and I’m almost certain he would have seen some game time this season but for the injury. I think we’ll end up regretting losing him.

Just seen a clip of the Horne injury, he was talking straight away it seems- more than concussion it looked like he’d given himself an epic stinger and probably couldn’t move.

Not sure. I can lip read and could distinctly tell that he was saying "Flgglrylgh mmppphlbo wbrrrgl blooorgh"

Yup, Australian.

Probably a brachial plexus injury- that’s how it looked in the impact. Nasty.

Getting through the tigers saints game. Genge does some fantastic stuff, but also some stupid stuff, I'd hope Eddie wouldn't let him get away with the stupid stuff. Not watching the defence, but think Ford is doing fairly well in attack, but Leicester really don't run many interesting attacking lines, or offer him many options during normal phase play.

You’d have to think genge is everything Eddie wants in a loosehead. Good scrum and improving rapidly, carries really well and adding better skills weekly. Plenty of dog.

Cornwall Council's full council meeting today voted in favour of investing £3m into the Stadium for Cornwall project.

Good news for the Pirates.

Seems like that project has been the works for so long now...

Seems like a strange time for the administrative powers to be steaming on with ringfencing now that Ealing have got the big money backer and Pirates are pushing closer to getting Prem level facilities

Eventually there's going to be some creative solution around scheduling because there's going to be more than 12 top-level teams but you can't work more than 12 teams into a round-robin format

Conferencing seems the least worst option

That's been in the works since before the last time Saints were demoted. I still won't believe that it's happening till they actually break ground

Bristol have run into a minor issue with their name change.

It turns out that the Bristol Bear Bar is the home of Bristol's gay scene - and a Google search for Bristol Bears returns many pictures of the regulars of said establishment

As of this post, this thread and the Brexit thread have the exact same number of posts in them. Lock them down.

PS, hello.

Now that's a genuinely interesting intervention on a national thread. Well apart from the last part

Ring fencing now is probably the est time, where the clubs are as evening spread out around the country as expected. Ealing are years off a premiership squad, get less than a 1000 to turn-up to games (Coventry the league below get 2000 more FFS), don't even have a stadium that would be acceptable and another team in west London will add absolutely nothing to the league.

Basically it's a great time to ringfence and there isn't any team outside the top league next season that has anything to add.

Swarm have bolstered Brexit nicely, they’re prolific.

Don't worry, the Swarm will soon shoot it way ahead.

Rumours that Gloucester are following suit by adoption the Lion moniker

From the Beeb ...



Having a laugh or do they still have a punch ups?

From another thread, and a minimum time line is 4 years and it won't happen

Isn't that why BArrow has left?

He hit one of the Youngs mafia.

The Mail says Joseph is confirmed as out of the SA tour and Hartley's continuing headaches seem certain to rule him out

No surprise, he properly did his ankle very lucky not to go 'full cipriani' on it. Not good on hartley, could well force eddies hand to move on.

Talking of injuries at the weekend, Tommy Bell ruptured his Achilles on Sunday. Had the ball, stopped dead, passed it and fell over sideways. Looked horrible.

Sounds like one of Quins' backline moves.

Wonder if Lozowski's recent cameos at 13 might persuade Eddie to take a look at him as a Joseph alternative.

Not the way I'd want to see it but could be a bit of a blessing in that regard

Bit of a Bomb scare in defence, him and Farrell rushing up and missing people is scary.

Leicester it is then. Nice move for him

Any news on citings from the Sale Newcastle game? Thought Graham and Webber could be in trouble.

Looks like Brad Shields is going to be selected for the SA tour, despite still playing for the Hurricanes. They will have to release him for the tests as they fall in the window - but he'll be needed for up to 6 games after the tour.

Not sure I'd be too impressed if I was an English Flanker, pushing hard for England selection in the Premiership........

Shields was always a shoo in.

Would be nice for him to actually play here 1st.

Eddie will probably break him anyway.

The way our luck is going he’ll break and never make it to wasps.

didn’t see the break bit- did you edit that or am I blind?