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The 2014/15 pre-season general news/discussion thread

Well whatever the case may be they certainly need to bring in more quality in the front row, loosehead being the weaker of the three now, Wood won't last much longer and he's never been that good anyway.

They should probably look at shifting the balance somewhat in their salary management. I think Davies realised that a bit too late in his tenure...
 
For the people who watch it: Rugby Tonight has moved to Mondays.

First episode of the new series is on tomorrow, not Wednesday!
 
welshglory said:
Well whatever the case may be they certainly need to bring in more quality in the front row, loosehead being the weaker of the three now, Wood won't last much longer and he's never been that good anyway.

They should probably look at shifting the balance somewhat in their salary management. I think Davies realised that a bit too late in his tenure...
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Really? I think he's been a quality premiership LH prop. In fact at times when Andrew Sheridans lack of actual technical skills were being highlighted for England....Wood was the name that always came up to replace him.
 
Yeah, Wood was cracking up until last season (and maybe half of the season before?).
Don't think the new engagement has suited him, which is strange considering I'd always thought of him as a technical scrummager, which the new laws favour apparently.
Though if the rumours that Gloucester literally didn't train with the new engagement until the season started, then that could explain it.
 
I think theres quite a number of props that have suffered with the changes. But i like the idea its more about being a good wrestler/technical player now not just able to put the big initial hit on.

Adam Jones hasnt got to grips with it yet and ill be watching Dan Cole with interest when he returns...was he struggling in games due to his injuries...or was he struggling with the rule changes...?
 
A good loosehead would have been a good signing, considering how much has been spent on getting Hibbard and Afoa in... might as well go all-out. But I think it's because we already had three looseheads on the books and other areas to strengthen that this never happened. I'm eager to see what will happen at the end of this season. Murphy is out of contract (and I believe Yann is too). Could be that we'll shift some resources around and look at bringing in a bigger loosehead. tbh, given the work rate of Afoa and Hibbard, we wouldn't even have to spend big on bringing in a loosehead that will perform as well in the loose. Just a top scrummager that will give us a front row that will dominate scrums.

But yeah, rats is certainly right. Afoa and Hibbard will have to be wrapped up in cotton wool this season.

I do hope that they'll pass on something to the other players though. I'm not entirely convinced that Knight, Puafisi and Yann have no hope of becoming decent Premiership performers. They just need a boost to their scrummaging.
 
Am I the only one who doesn't quite understand the hype around Zach Kibirige...?

Seen lots of people put him down as a player to watch - is that just down to the try he scored for the u20's?
 
The Newcastle fan I know raves about him. I've barely seen him play tbh.
 
The very little I've seen of him didn't exactly justify the hype.

Anyone who watched Rugby Tonight notice the glaring omission of Leiua from their Wasps transfer review? Not quite sure how they managed that...
 
Yeah I saw that as well. James Gaskell was one of the players to watch ? Doubt he will get much serious time behind Haskell, Johnson, Thompson, Hughes, Jones. Leiua could well turn out too be the next Goneva with his impact on the prem. Also for Newcastle they didn't mention Juan Pablo Socino and instead went for Anitelea who is incredibly average but he has a name so he was gonna get more recognition.
 
Looked pretty badly researched tbh

Although to be fair, I think Gaskell was supposedly very good in pre-season - I'm not a big fan of his though.
 
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Sounds like the usually story when it comes to rugby journalism, poor research and lots of cliche.


Sochino is going to be vital for Flacons, he was very impressive for Rotherham and I can see him being a real lynchpin of the side if they want to stay up. Would be that surprised if, come this time next year, we weren't talking about him being in the Rugby Championship squad for Argentina.
 
Patchey said:
Sounds like the usually story when it comes to rugby journalism, poor research and lots of cliche.


Sochino is going to be vital for Flacons, he was very impressive for Rotherham and I can see him being a real lynchpin of the side if they want to stay up. Would be that surprised if, come this time next year, we weren't talking about him being in the Rugby Championship squad for Argentina.
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Completely agree and he will get selected for Argentina in a year or two. He will probably turn out too be a Gopperth and really help them through the difficult games, it's such a big thing for smaller teams having a reliable goal kicker who will keep them in touch when things aren't going well. Will also like to see him taking the ball to the line with Sinoti, Alesana and co hitting it up.
 
I thought Barbieri, Loamanu or Leo Ghilalndi (you know who I mean) would have been a better choice than Bai (although he has played extremely well in the preseason).
 

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