Kockott makes Castres threat

[dudeabides]

Paris - Castres scrumhalf Rory Kockott, who is on holiday in South Africa, has threatened not to return to France if they refuse to release him from his contract.

He wants to join Top 14 giants Racing Metro, but is contracted with Castres until 2014.

Kockott's decision to join Castres was influenced by the strong contingent of South African players at the club that include Jannie Bornman, Michael Coetzee, Antonie Claassen and Pedrie Wannenburg.

http://www.sport24.co.za/Rugby/Kockott-makes-Castres-threat-20130103

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Typical scrumhalf.

 

[gaston le gaff]

not quite sure that is all correct as their are clauses in his contract concerning the H Cup......reply from Castres..... "Comme suite aux différents articles de presse évoquant la situation de Rory Kockott, le Castres Olympique précise que ce joueur dispose d'une année de contrat supplémentaire si le club est qualifié en Heineken Cup et qu'il sera par contre libre si le club n'est pas qualifié pour cette compé***ion. Le club lui a par ailleurs octroyé une semaine de congés pour assister au mariage de sa sœur en Afrique du Sud. Le club souhaite tout naturellement que les parties respectent leurs engagements contractuels et maintient toute sa confiance en Rory Kockott qui ne l'a jamais menacé de ne pas reprendre ses activités contrairement à ce qui est affirmé dans les colonnes de L'Equipe du 3 janvier 2013".

 

[psychic duck]

Kockott has been a revelation for Castres this season and is the Top 14 leading point scorer.

A shame he is trying to blackmail his club to be allowed to move to Racing for next season.

On another point, do Racing really need Kockott? Sure he's a good player, but Racing already have Maxime Machenaud, and both of those players would probably expect to be first choice.

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

Typical Kockott... Arrogant prick who thinks he is the next Fourie du Preez. I'm glad we got rid of him when we got the chance.

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2

 

[nickdnz]

I always actually liked him at a player, and he's certainly been very good for Castres with his goal kicking, shame that he's making this threat - you can't negotiate a contract after it's been signed and making threats like not returning to France is very poor behavior.

 

[psychic duck]

I always actually liked him at a player, and he's certainly been very good for Castres with his goal kicking, shame that he's making this threat - you can't negotiate a contract after it's been signed and making threats like not returning to France is very poor behavior.

Not just his goal kicking that he has been very good at, he also has been very good in attack scoring 5 tries. Look at these two individual tries he scored against Toulouse and Mont-de-Marsan. He is considered this season the best player in the league in his position.

Another thing to note in this, is that both the Castres coaches are leaving to join Racing-Métro next season. So that will be some reason why he wants to follow them.

Also note that the Castres coaches Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers joined Castres from Montauban in 2009, and notably decimated the Montauban side which had just in one of their best periods for a small club and qualified for the 2008/09 Heineken Cup. The coaches then joined Castres, and took nearly all of Montauban's best players with them. Ibrahim Diarra, Yannick Caballero, Matthias Rolland, Yoan Audrin and Scott Murray all followed them to Castres.

So I wouldn't be surprised that the coaches are trying to do something similar with Racing and take a load of Castres players with them.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SuaWZPEHmos#t=4879" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/d5jOrRL1ng8#t=115" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

 

[nickdnz]

Not just his goal kicking that he has been very good at, he also has been very good in attack scoring 5 tries. Look at these two individual tries he scored against Toulouse and Mont-de-Marsan. He is considered this season the best player in the league in his position.

Another thing to note in this, is that both the Castres coaches are leaving to join Racing-Métro next season. So that will be some reason why he wants to follow them.

Also note that the Castres coaches Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers joined Castres from Montauban in 2009, and notably decimated the Montauban side which had just in one of their best periods for a small club and qualified for the 2008/09 Heineken Cup. The coaches then joined Castres, and took nearly all of Montauban's best players with them. Ibrahim Diarra, Yannick Caballero, Matthias Rolland, Yoan Audrin and Scott Murray all followed them to Castres.

So I wouldn't be surprised that the coaches are trying to do something similar with Racing and take a load of Castres players with them.

He's still reasonably young - could probably qualify for the French team in a few seasons time. I wasn't meaning to suggest that he wasn't good at things other than goal kicking - it's just he has been absolutely exceptional at that from what I have seen. Didn't know that about Castres coaching team leaving - guess the coaches command more loyalty than the clubs. I suppose if Kockott is playing the best rugby of his career, it's not suprise he'd want to stay with the coaching staff that have got him to that form. Still not the best to go about it.

I've actually been really impressed with what I've seen from Morgan Parra from Clermont. Plays a very nice support game with great little touches. Sure it's hardly a revelation to people who follow French rugby closer than I do (as he has been in the national team consistently etc) but I guess I've been a bit late to notice.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

On another point, do Racing really need Kockott? Sure he's a good player, but Racing already have Maxime Machenaud, and both of those players would probably expect to be first choice.

I'd say yes, they do need him. Racing Metro's goal is to be a top European club. As such, they expect to play in the region of 35 games per season. That's too much of a burden to place on one player. Having both Machenaud and Kockott would allow them to rotate liberally and keep both players fit throughout the season. One week it's 60 minutes of Machenaud and 20 minutes of Kockott, the next week the situation is reversed as the player coming off the bench ups the tempo.

 

[gaston le gaff]

Thats 3/4 years that Racing have been buying class players and yet they have nothing to show the Chelsea's of the rugby world do exist in France but are not always successful as it takes more than a very healthy bank balance to win the Bouclier de Brennus just ask Clermont 10 times finalist and 10 times loosers, that that has now beeen corrected, and without spending millions Clermont are one of the top sides in Europe, on form today having beaten Leinster home and away, who everyone says were the best!!! So Racing may get their 2 class no.9's but after that nothing is guarenteed.....

 

[psychic duck]

Thats 3/4 years that Racing have been buying class players and yet they have nothing to show the Chelsea's of the rugby world do exist in France but are not always successful as it takes more than a very healthy bank balance to win the Bouclier de Brennus just ask Clermont 10 times finalist and 10 times loosers, that that has now beeen corrected, and without spending millions Clermont are one of the top sides in Europe, on form today having beaten Leinster home and away, who everyone says were the best!!! So Racing may get their 2 class no.9's but after that nothing is guarenteed.....

I would argue that it does actually. Just others (Toulon, Toulouse, Clermont) are all even more rich than Racing are. There is no chance for a small town club to win the Top 14 these days. Also Clermont do spend millions on their team recruiting, just unlike Racing or Toulon they also have one of the best systems for producing homegrown players as well, which has been in place long before the Top 14 became the richest in the world.

Also Racing aren't actually that good a side full of big names on paper anyway as people often state. Their first choice pack is ...

1. Brugnaut
2. Szarzewski
3. Ducalcon
4. Ghezal
5. van der Merwe
6. Battut
7. Cronje
8. Matadigo

Decent, but hardly going to scare Leinster, Toulouse, Clermont etc. How many of that pack would get into those sides' packs. The Ospreys too have a better pack than that as well.

Only really Szarzewski from that pack is a proven international yet people still roll out names like "galacticos" and "star studded" to describe it.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

@gaston le gaff
Agreed, having 2 strong scrum halves doesn't guarantee success. In my opinion, as psychic duck points out, they need to strengthen their pack first in a big way in order to be contenders. Mujati, Tonga'uiha, Kruger and Lydiate should help see to that.

Also Clermont do spend millions on their team recruiting, just unlike Racing or Toulon they also have one of the best systems for producing homegrown players as well, which has been in place long before the Top 14 became the richest in the world.

Is that true? Look at their French players. I've bolded those who were produced by ASM: Cabello, Kayser, Debaty, Domingo, Ric, Jacquet, Pierre, Bardy (even though he's a Portugal international), Bonnaire, Lapandry, Chouly, Vermeulen, Parra, Radosavljevic, Skrela, Fofana, Rougerie, Malzieu, Buttin, Floch. Out of 20 French players on their books, 14 learned their rugby at other clubs before being plucked by Clermont. What ASM are excellent at is identifying young talent and bringing them in to their system early from other teams. They must have excellent scouts.

 

[psychic duck]

Is that true? Look at their French players. I've bolded those who were produced by ASM: Cabello, Kayser, Debaty, Domingo, Ric, Jacquet, Pierre, Bardy (even though he's a Portugal international), Bonnaire, Lapandry, Chouly, Vermeulen, Parra, Radosavljevic, Skrela, Fofana, Rougerie, Malzieu, Buttin, Floch. Out of 20 French players on their books, 14 learned their rugby at other clubs before being plucked by Clermont. What ASM are excellent at is identifying young talent and bringing them in to their system early from other teams. They must have excellent scouts.

Some of these may have played for smaller feeder clubs at youth level, but they were signed to Clermont as teenagers and went through their Espoirs youth system (Clermont Espoirs side has won the last 3 Academy ***les in France). So considering that all of the below were brought through into pro rugby by Clermont.

Thomas Domingo
Clément Ric
Loïc Jacquet
Julien Bardy (Portugal)
Alexandre Lapandry
Aurélien Rougerie
Julien Malzieu
Jean-Marcellin Buttin
Anthony Floch
Wesley Fofana
Noa Nakaitaci (Fiji)

If you look at the quality of those and compare it to how many Toulon and Racing have produced it's a lot.