Transfers rumours

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Wow - well done Gloucester!

The Daily Mail is also saying that the following transfers are all but complete! Rhys Priestland ----> Wasps
Bradley Davies -----> Wasps

Excellent if true. Funny, at international level I have dissed Priestland alot but I think he'll be excellent for Wasps.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Those are two great signings for Gloucester.
Will be interesting to see who they lose at the end of the season to accommodate them both in the salary cap: Neither would have been cheap!
I'm presuming JSD will call it a day, so that should cover one.

 

[j'nuh]

We have a good 16 or so players coming out of contract. Here's how I imagine things will shape up:

Cowan, who is out of contract, will leave, allowing us to sign one of Afoa/Hibbard as a marquee signing. Let's just assume it's Afoa. (I'm pretty sure it will be, tightheads are expensive.)
When Afoa joins, Harden will leave.
This will give us the salary room to sign a small-name 9 to provide back-up to Knoyle and Robson. This should account for Afoa without reducing squad size/squad quality elsewhere.

As for Hibbard, well, I'm expecting a good 10 players to be moving on this season. There are numerous ways of making up the cash. We could consolidate Edmonds' and Dawidiuk's salaries into Hibbard's and reduce our hooker count to 3, using Ryan Charles as a back-up in the academy (most teams only have 3 hookers, I'm not sure why we go with 4). We are overstocked in the back row (Cox, Kalamafoni, Savage, Hazell, Qera, Kvesic, Morgan, Evans) - Qera and Cox will probably move on and Hazell might retire, and we could bring in Moriaty and Ludlow as cheap, academy replacements. Also, sadly, we might not even re-sign JSD (for his injury record) or Sharples (Tigers rumoured to be after him). Freddie is also being lured by other clubs. We have James and Tindall on the cusp of retirement. Other players out of contract include Lokotui, Knight, Taylor, Mills, Bentley, Dan George and Martyn Thomas. So there's a lot of scope for squad re-structuring.

 

[ratsapprentice]

One of Burns or Mills is definitely going it's just a matter of who, surely?

There's definitely a lot of journeymen who you can afford to scrap.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

If you lose one of Burns and Mills then you've still go to sign a replacement. Can't really continue on with the other one, plus Burns Jr (and that guy from Pirates? Bentley?), neither of whom are really prem starting material (yet? in Burns Jrs case, anyway).

 

[ratsapprentice]

I don't mean the club will want to get rid of him, but I think Mills is probably frustrated being behind 36 and Burns.
He could be a good buy for a mid table club.

 

[Peat]

I don't mean the club will want to get rid of him, but I think Mills is probably frustrated being behind 36 and Burns.
He could be a good buy for a mid table club.

Wasps are rumoured to be interested

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Wasps are rumoured to be interested

I'm massively ignorant - who is Mils?
In generally, we've taken enough punts on club 10's who are 2nd or 3rd choice at their clubs and cant' get game-time, and it generally doesn't work out at wasps either - enough I say.

Got to say, whilst I despite the Daily mail with every bone in my body, I appreciate their rugby coverage and just their general alertness to movements in the rugby world.

Also that's bad news if we're signing Priestland too, as it means Tommy Bell, who genuinely looks an exciting player, won't be getting any gametime whatsoever.

Also: WATCH WHO YOU'RE CALLING MID-TABLE!
Bear in mind that I'm immune to logic or evidence, so any retort based around the fact that we finish there every single season won't work on me

 

[Peat]

Ryan Mills. Was a 10/12 in the England U20 team at 2011 a year young. He's got decent gametime for Glaws when 36/Mercury have been injured and looked useful. I reckon he'd be a pretty useful punt for Wasps as a 12.

 

[j'nuh]

"Afoa, who was part of the All Blacks' 2011 World Cup winning squad and won 36 caps for New Zealand, is expected to become the highest paid player in the Aviva Premiership after Gloucester beat off at least nine French Top 14 clubs, including big-spenders Toulon and Racing Metro, to secure his services."

Holy ****ing ****.

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...d-hooker-Richard-Hibbard-for-next-season.html)

I'm massively ignorant - who is Mils?
In generally, we've taken enough punts on club 10's who are 2nd or 3rd choice at their clubs and cant' get game-time, and it generally doesn't work out at wasps either - enough I say.

Ryan Mills played for the England u20s a couple of years ago, alongside Daly. He mainly plays 12, but also regularly plays at 10 too. He's a ~15st playmaker and plays basically like a younger Twelvetrees. He's a complete 12, the kind of 12 that Australia likes to produce. Big enough to take a hit or two, happy to distribute and run at space and can kick for space when it's on too. A lot of potential. His main apparent weakness is that he's showing signs of being injury-prone. Sat most of last season out with one big injury, and picked up another 10-14 week injury recently too.

I fear that Gloucester will lose Burns and Mills. Even if Burns moves on, Mills has openly stated that he prefers 12, and that's always going to be difficult with Twelvetrees at the club.

 

[ratsapprentice]

The move to Wasps is what I was referring to, which is almost certain should Freddie stay with Glos.

And he would be better at 12 than anyone you've got by my reckoning, and as good value as you're likely to find.

 

[Aedaphon]

"Afoa, who was part of the All Blacks' 2011 World Cup winning squad and won 36 caps for New Zealand, is expected to become the highest paid player in the Aviva Premiership after Gloucester beat off at least nine French Top 14 clubs, including big-spenders Toulon and Racing Metro, to secure his services."

Really overkilling that front row compensation. Maybe Glos will finally have a platform to work with (although that'd be a bit late if they end up losing Burns)

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

So this is confusing:

The Guardian are claiming that Wasps have been given permission to talk to Richard Hibbard, and that Gloucester are interested in Priestland - the other way round from what the daily mail/others are saying!

 

[j'nuh]

From what I understand, the Guardian need to sort their sh*t out.

 

[ratsapprentice]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/...op-John-Afoa-an-unlikely-rich-lister-of-rugby

The Sunday Star-Times understands Esportif management have put together a contract worth $1 million per season, making Afoa the highest-paid player in the English Premiership. It means the 30-year-old World Cup winner will be on the third-highest contract in Europe, sitting behind only Wilkinson ($1,118,220) and Sexton (1,039,104) and above the likes of South African wing Bryan Habana ($998,412), French halfback Morgan Para ($918,540) and fellow former All Black prop Carl Hayman ($818,700).

Wow.

How ****** is Walkinshaw going to be if Fred decides to leave!? :lol:

 

[Tony Manx]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/...op-John-Afoa-an-unlikely-rich-lister-of-rugby



Wow.

How ****** is Walkinshaw going to be if Fred decides to leave!? :lol:

Not sure that is worth believing..............cannot believe that Wilko is still on that kind of money either!

 

[ratsapprentice]

Those figures are the same that Midi-Olympique produced last season I believe, I have no reason to doubt them.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Casey Laulala to Grenoble.

 

[lucky number 7]

Casey Laulala to Grenoble.

Jackman still out there?

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Yep. The transfer was reported in today's Sunday Times.