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Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:08 pm
by Raggs
fatcat wrote:
Raggs wrote:Any London Scottish types here? Any comments on Sam Neal? He's apparently signed for Wasps. From highlights he seems to have fairly good hands for a big lad (6'5" centre).
One of my best pals is a season ticket holder and one of the minis coaches - I would ask him, but he knows f*ck all about rugby.
:lol: :lol:

On another note, Dan Robson signs a long term deal with Wasps, very happy with that.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:30 pm
by DragsterDriver
Raggs wrote:
fatcat wrote:
Raggs wrote:Any London Scottish types here? Any comments on Sam Neal? He's apparently signed for Wasps. From highlights he seems to have fairly good hands for a big lad (6'5" centre).
One of my best pals is a season ticket holder and one of the minis coaches - I would ask him, but he knows f*ck all about rugby.
:lol: :lol:

On another note, Dan Robson signs a long term deal with Wasps, very happy with that.
*confirmation Raggs isn’t joe simpson*

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:44 pm
by Nieghorn
Raggs wrote:
Margin_Walker wrote:
Raggs wrote:Any London Scottish types here? Any comments on Sam Neal? He's apparently signed for Wasps. From highlights he seems to have fairly good hands for a big lad (6'5" centre).
Ross Neal surely? Unless they have another tall Neal playing centre.

Was senior academy at LI for three years, but just missed out on a senior contract. I would have rather kept him than Hearn. Formed a pretty decent centre partnership with Mosses at LS since.

He looks pretty decent, but you never know how they'll make the step up.
Ross then, sorry, just read the name quickly :D.

Hopefully he'll make the step up, only 22, so still plenty young enough to develop. Hopefully he'll follow in the footsteps of Thompson, Bassett, Cruse and Reider.

And not that other 6'5" centre they'd signed previously. (Armitage is off, too, isn't he?)

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:50 pm
by Raggs
Nieghorn wrote:
Raggs wrote:
Margin_Walker wrote:
Raggs wrote:Any London Scottish types here? Any comments on Sam Neal? He's apparently signed for Wasps. From highlights he seems to have fairly good hands for a big lad (6'5" centre).
Ross Neal surely? Unless they have another tall Neal playing centre.

Was senior academy at LI for three years, but just missed out on a senior contract. I would have rather kept him than Hearn. Formed a pretty decent centre partnership with Mosses at LS since.

He looks pretty decent, but you never know how they'll make the step up.
Ross then, sorry, just read the name quickly :D.

Hopefully he'll make the step up, only 22, so still plenty young enough to develop. Hopefully he'll follow in the footsteps of Thompson, Bassett, Cruse and Reider.

And not that other 6'5" centre they'd signed previously. (Armitage is off, too, isn't he?)
Armitage is off, but he's 26? or so I believe, so I'm hoping the younger one can develop more.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 11:08 pm
by Nieghorn
Was anyone down to see Eddie give a chat this evening? Someone I follow on twitter suggested these were three of the topics discussed ...

#Experiment #TakeRisks #PreparedToFail

... no word on whether Eddie was telling the audience to do this, or if that fella was asking him to step out of his comfort zone. ;)

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:54 am
by DragsterDriver
Olding to sale- not sure about Jackson?

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 4:30 pm
by maherro
Gents, sorry to interrupt your national thread but I've a quick question. I was listening to the egg chasers podcast and they were talking about Quins. They mentioned that Sinckler was part of the Wade 'clique'. What happened there? All I know is that Wade left under a cloud.

Anyways. As you were.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 4:31 pm
by duke
maherro wrote:Gents, sorry to interrupt your national thread but I've a quick question. I was listening to the egg chasers podcast and they were talking about Quins. They mentioned that Sinckler was part of the Wade 'clique'. What happened there? All I know is that Wade left under a cloud.

Anyways. As you were.
Yarde shurely?

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 4:34 pm
by happyhooker
maherro wrote:Gents, sorry to interrupt your national thread but I've a quick question. I was listening to the egg chasers podcast and they were talking about Quins. They mentioned that Sinckler was part of the Wade 'clique'. What happened there? All I know is that Wade left under a cloud.

Anyways. As you were.
Wade is at wasps. Do you mean yarde?

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:10 pm
by eldanielfire
maherro wrote:Gents, sorry to interrupt your national thread but I've a quick question. I was listening to the egg chasers podcast and they were talking about Quins. They mentioned that Sinckler was part of the Wade 'clique'. What happened there? All I know is that Wade left under a cloud.

Anyways. As you were.
Either they or you are fairly racist is all I took form this classic case of "They all look the same" ;)

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:43 am
by maherro
Ah. I obviously got confused :blush:

Yarde. What happened with him at Quins?

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:10 am
by 45jumper
What happened with Yarde remains very murky. My best guess is that he just let his professionalism slip, he was late to or missed too many things without good reason. Seems happy enough at Sale, perhaps a bit of tough love is what he needed?

Anyway, sounds like all isn't well at Wasps. May just be much ado about nothing though...
Wasps mutiny! England stars Elliot Daly and Joe Launchbury set to leave over 'broken promises' on training facilities and contracts
But Coventry-based side face growing threat of an exodus of their leading stars
Players unhappy as they were promised state-of-the-art training facilities in 2014
By Chris Foy for the Daily Mail

PUBLISHED: 22:31, 25 April 2018 | UPDATED: 23:29, 25 April 2018

Wasps face the growing threat of an exodus of their leading stars, with a mutinous mood in the squad over ‘broken promises’ relating to late payments and new facilities.

Coventry-based Wasps resume their Premiership title challenge on Sunday when they meet Northampton at the Ricoh Arena but there is serious unrest behind the scenes.

Patience is thin, caused by a lack of anticipated investment against a backdrop of financial turmoil. This jars with the perception that the club are enjoying a new era of prosperity.

Sportsmail has learned that marquee players such as Elliot Daly, Joe Launchbury and Christian Wade are expected to leave when their contracts expire unless Wasps address their grievances. Sources have indicated that the discontent and resentment have become so heightened that some fear there will be a flashpoint before most of those deals run out.

The primary gripes among players and coaching staff relate to inadequate training facilities and the backlog in image-rights payments, which are thought to account for about 15 per cent of overall salaries.

Wasps moved to Coventry at the end of 2014, and owner Derek Richardson pledged that they would have to use a temporary training base for only six months, before a new, state-of-the-art HQ was ready.

Three years on, two sites which were identified have been ditched and a new location is being sought. The message from the hierarchy is that it will be at least another two years before they no longer have to act as reluctant squatters in the basic surroundings at Broadstreet RFC.

There, the supposedly wealthy club have portable cabins serving as offices in the car park. They share changing rooms with Broadstreet teams and use the clubhouse for lunch — ‘It’s like eating in a pub every day we are training,’ said one player.

Outside, Wasps have only one pitch and players have voiced concerns that the tired surface is contributing to a run of injuries.

Misgivings have also been expressed about the state of the pitch at the Ricoh Arena but nothing had been done about it. Instead, urgent work had to be carried out when cracks were found in the walls of the stadium last month.

Sportsmail has been told that image-rights payments were not made to Wasps players for two years. That problem was addressed earlier this season but now it is understood payments are six months in arrears again.

There is a widespread feeling that all areas of expenditure are under pressure and that the academy is being denied vital investment in favour of ‘window dressing’.

Another grievance within the squad was the handling of Sam Jones’s premature retirement. The flanker, who suffered career-ending injuries performing judo drills training with England in 2016, was upset that his wages were halted immediately he announced he had to stop playing.

Team-mates were angry but the board argued that he had been paid in full for 17 months while rehabilitating, when a contract only requires wages to remain at normal levels for six months of inactivity. Still, the saga served to further strain morale — not helped by poor communication between the powers-that-be and the players.

Unrest behind the scenes comes at a time of financial turbulence. Wasps launched a bond scheme in 2015, which yielded £35million, but they owe £2m in interest each year and must settle the debt in full in four years’ time.

Doubts have been expressed by independent experts about their ability to do so, with claims that the club will need to refinance.

At the end of last year, Wasps were forced to seek permission from bond holders to break the terms of the deal after Richardson made a personal payment to make up for a shortfall in the scheme.

Last month, it was reported that Wasps’ financial statements were three months overdue and that Companies House were taking enforcement action against what amounts to a criminal offence.

While the public see a club riding high, with a viable home of their own at last, a title-chasing team and box-office appeal, the reality is that all is not well. It has been suggested that Wasps are at a crossroads and that without the right investment, the feared exodus will happen.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:16 am
by Raggs
The payments over image rights is a bit iffy.

Most of this seems to have come from a video on Haskells instagram where he apparently jokes with Daly and Launch about the new training facilities.

Article seems to ignore the fact that Launch and Daly signed extensions this season, and tries to paint Wasps paying Sam Jones full wages for 17 months (instead of reduced after 6 months) as a negative.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:19 am
by Brazil
The Wasps players are such entitled pricks, I’d love to eat lunch in the pub every day.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:19 am
by DragsterDriver
Brazil wrote:The Wasps players are such entitled pricks, I’d love to eat lunch in the pub every day.
:lol:

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:21 am
by Raggs
Brazil wrote:The Wasps players are such entitled pricks, I’d love to eat lunch in the pub every day.
I think that one must be bollocks myself (or taken out of context, could have just as easily been someone saying it's great, it's like eating at the pub every day!). The club does introduction videos for new players, always asks the best 3 things so far and the food inevitably is one of them, the interviews with the props seem to have them wanting to marry the chef. Think the one with Watson said that Ben Harris had been telling the Falcons boys (he was loaned to Wasps at first) how good the food was.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 8:31 am
by Margin_Walker
Chris Foy often seems to have pretty decent sources, so doubt this is all from Hask's Instagram. There's probably a few issues there behind the scenes even if much of the article is exaggerated. Financial angle/non payment of image rights probably of most note.

Certainly odd going with the exodus of newly re-signed players angle

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:08 am
by eldanielfire
Margin_Walker wrote:Chris Foy often seems to have pretty decent sources, so doubt this is all from Hask's Instagram. There's probably a few issues there behind the scenes even if much of the article is exaggerated. Financial angle/non payment of image rights probably of most note.

Certainly odd going with the exodus of newly re-signed players angle
With Haskell leaving the Wasps players obviously dread a new era of poor quality banter.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:53 am
by 45jumper
I did find the bit about Launch, Daly and Wade leaving especially strange as the former only signed a new contract in December :lol:

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:58 am
by Raggs
45jumper wrote:I did find the bit about Launch, Daly and Wade leaving especially strange as the former only signed a new contract in December :lol:
Daly signed a new one this season too (so did WLR and Robson, along with Miller, Bassett, Reider etc). Wade has constantly been rumoured to be off to France, so him leaving would hardly be proof of anything in my mind.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:10 am
by englishchief
I had it in my head that Bassett was going to France?

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:17 am
by Raggs
englishchief wrote:I had it in my head that Bassett was going to France?
Yeah, but you were convinced that Maunder was the best scrum half in the world, based on 2 minutes and 2 passes.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:34 am
by Raggs
Wasps response is that each player has 2 years on the contract and they've no idea what the hell Foy is talking about with regards to image rights, and that there are no outstanding payments.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/exclusiv ... ge-walking

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:21 am
by Varsity Way
http://www.englandrugby.com/news/britis ... with-caps/

Nice touch awarding caps to all past and present Lions.

Image

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:05 pm
by Plastic Sarrie
Image

Good news, everyone

Image

Image

Irish recall Blair Cowan to start against Sarries

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:08 pm
by happyhooker
Billy's on the bench!

Can you resize/spoiler that for those of us on phones.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:15 pm
by Plastic Sarrie
Better?

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:16 pm
by Portcullis Irish
Cowan to give us all the Sarries trade secrets?
Sarries bench all starters for our 15 no wonder they are deep in the red.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:32 pm
by happyhooker
Plastic Sarrie wrote:Better?
Ta

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:33 pm
by Nieghorn
Portcullis Irish wrote:Cowan to give us all the Sarries trade secrets?
Sarries bench all starters for our 15 no wonder they are deep in the red.
Who are in the reserves? Tompkins and Earle could be regulars in most other clubs, you'd reckon.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:30 pm
by DragsterDriver
Falcons v tigers should be decent tonight :)

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:31 pm
by Raggs
Currently planning on doing ruck marks for Wilson, Graham, and O'Connor.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:47 pm
by DragsterDriver
Having finally seen Graham play the other week I thought he was pretty good, hard worker and good carrier. Eddie did well to spot him.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:29 pm
by OhNo
DragsterDriver wrote:Falcons v tigers should be decent tonight :)
I doubt it Falcons are running out of steam. Great season though.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:08 pm
by Nabberuk
OhNo wrote:
DragsterDriver wrote:Falcons v tigers should be decent tonight :)
I doubt it Falcons are running out of steam. Great season though.

Nah

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:16 pm
by SaintK
Nabberuk wrote:
OhNo wrote:
DragsterDriver wrote:Falcons v tigers should be decent tonight :)
I doubt it Falcons are running out of steam. Great season though.

Nah
They looked a bit jaded against Glaws last week, but had rested a few key players so maybe not this week?

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:19 pm
by Nabberuk
SaintK wrote:
Nabberuk wrote:
OhNo wrote:
DragsterDriver wrote:Falcons v tigers should be decent tonight :)
I doubt it Falcons are running out of steam. Great season though.

Nah
They looked a bit jaded against Glaws last week, but had rested a few key players so maybe not this week?
I think tigers will be the same as last week. Creating opportunities but failing to finish them off.

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:43 pm
by Nabberuk
“Maybe one day people will speak of Edinburgh and think of rugby first, not the f------ castle,” said Cockerill with a chuckle.

:lol:

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:47 pm
by DragsterDriver
Nope I’m still excited :thumbup:

Re: **OFFICIAL** English Rugby Thread

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:49 pm
by DragsterDriver
:shock: