Transfer news, rumours, speculation, insinuations, and outright transfer slanders - Season 2025/26

[Danno]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union ... h-defence/

I can’t tell what this is based on (if anything) but the idea of now shifting El Abd to forwards so Wigglesworth can have a go at being a defence coach sounds ridiculous.

Wiggy has coached international defence before for Canada, so it's not entirely illogical, but it seems barking. I would be thoroughly in favour of us getting Blackett in, as he seems like a superb attack coach, but El-Abd's defence was one of the highlights of the summer and we only just got him in, at great expense and trouble, so it seems wild to then move him!

If we can get Blackett, then just move Wiggy to being full-time no.2 and let him dip his oar in as and how he likes. Let's not fuck about with a good thing.

Puja

In the land of the sensible we'd just put Wiggler at skills and let El Abd (I don't quite share your opinion of his defence coaching just yet but hey - and how much did a Pro D2 part time coach really cost ) and Blackett (and Ford - I shall not cease banging this drum) get the attack.

Wiggslyerer anywhere near the defence is patently bonkers

[Which Tyler]

Wiggy has coached international defence before for Canada, so it's not entirely illogical, but it seems barking. I would be thoroughly in favour of us getting Vesty in, as he seems like a superb attack coach, but El-Abd's defence was one of the highlights of the summer and we only just got him in, at great expense and trouble, so it seems wild to then move him!

If we can get Vesty, then just move Wiggy to being full-time no.2 and let him dip his oar in as and how he likes. Let's not fuck about with a good thing.

FTFY

In the land of the sensible we'd just put Wiggler at skills and let El Abd (I don't quite share your opinion of his defence coaching just yet but hey - and how much did a Pro D2 part time coach really cost ) and Vesty (and Ford - I shall not cease banging this drum) get the attack.

Wiggslyerer anywhere near the defence is patently bonkers

You too

[Danno]

I don't know what you changed WT!

[FKAS]

He replaced Blackett with Vesty.

I suspect Blackett would be more available as he's just attack coach for Bath. Vesty being head coach at Saints would probably see them exceptionally unhappy at potentially letting him go.

Isn't Sinfield still on the books as skills coach, albeit part time? At some point we might need to move on a coach in order to make room for a new one.

[Danno]

'Twas very late, in my meagre defence

[Mellsblue]

Did the Wigster go to the same Kompromat tutorials at Sarries as Farrell.

[FKAS]

https://archive.ph/ryDY4

Interview with Pat Howard, interesting that Johnno approached him when he got the England job.

[Puja]

Newcastle pick up Fergus Lee-Warner and Hame Faiva. Decent pros and the kind of signings that you suspect Diamond would've wanted to make for his bottom-of-the-table scrappers last year if he'd had a reasonable operating budget. 1 year contracts for both - reaffirming that the name of the game this year is not finishing bottom before the spending spree for 26/27.

Puja

[Danno]

They really do need some backs now. I see the idea of putting together a hard-to-beat squad while they rebuild but the points have to come from somewhere

[FKAS]

They've got some centre options and both flyhalfs can cover 15 but back three players they are laughably short on you're right Danno.

Adding experience to the forward pack is a good plan. Particularly, the mobile and physical style of player they are targeting. They should be an altogether tougher side to play against this coming season. The one year deals make sense as well as Diamond is likely to take a different role at the end of the season so no point building out a squad that might not suit the new head coach (rumoured to have approached Townsend).

[twitchy]

I'm waiting for the tide of public opinion to turn when newcastle blossom from plucky underdogs scrapping to stay in the division to being the next saracens from 10 years ago.

[FKAS]

I'm waiting for the tide of public opinion to turn when newcastle blossom from plucky underdogs scrapping to stay in the division to being the next saracens from 10 years ago.

Well I'm not sure Red Bull will attempt to cheat the system the way Sarries did. They might well go down the squad clearance path bit albeit that's already started. The mass inflow or Saffas is less likely with the EQ limits though.

[Puja]

I'm waiting for the tide of public opinion to turn when newcastle blossom from plucky underdogs scrapping to stay in the division to being the next saracens from 10 years ago.

More likely to become the Bristol when they signed Piutau and Radradra to my mind - jealousy, but admiration at bringing the players into the Prem. I think Sarries made themselves hated initially with the way they did things by abruptly sacking a chunk of the squad (including several long-time servants) and replacing them en masse with South Africans. They weren't actually hated much back when they first came into money and signed Pienaar, Lynagh, and Sella back in 1996ish.

Puja

[Puja]

https://www.planetrugby.com/news/racing ... en-farrell

"I was upset, I felt like vomiting. When he left us, he told us, ‘I am injured, I have a headache, I want to play less. The Saracens offer me this opportunity etc…’ And a few days later, he played with the Lions. He lied to us. I need to say the truth about him. I have the feeling to have been betrayed.”

“It’s something I don’t understand. It’s called lying. It feels good to let him go. I felt betrayed.”
...

“There’s a mentality flaw,” Lorenzetti added. “When you come to a club with a very good salary, you commit yourself, and the counterpart of this salary is still a performance; you have to deliver. And here, it wasn’t delivered.”

Lorenzetti showing his class once again in blaming Fazlet for reporting concussion symptoms, but I can't blame him for being narked at him for disappearing halfway through a contract.


In other news, Jordan Petaia has followed LRZ in failing out of trying to make the NFL and has joined Perpignan: https://www.rugby.com.au/news/former-wa ... de-2025827

Feels like a waste of a bit of his rugby career that could conceivably have included playing agains the Lions, but I'm sure he will be able to dry his eyes with the money that he did make. Hopefully this latest failure (after Gray, Scotland-Williamson, Wade, LRZ, etc) will convince both the NFL and rugby players that these are two separate sports with very little in common and we'll have no further poaching going forwards.

Puja

[TheDasher]

https://www.planetrugby.com/news/racing ... en-farrell

"I was upset, I felt like vomiting. When he left us, he told us, ‘I am injured, I have a headache, I want to play less. The Saracens offer me this opportunity etc…’ And a few days later, he played with the Lions. He lied to us. I need to say the truth about him. I have the feeling to have been betrayed.”

“It’s something I don’t understand. It’s called lying. It feels good to let him go. I felt betrayed.”
...

“There’s a mentality flaw,” Lorenzetti added. “When you come to a club with a very good salary, you commit yourself, and the counterpart of this salary is still a performance; you have to deliver. And here, it wasn’t delivered.”

Lorenzetti showing his class once again in blaming Fazlet for reporting concussion symptoms, but I can't blame him for being narked at him for disappearing halfway through a contract.


In other news, Jordan Petaia has followed LRZ in failing out of trying to make the NFL and has joined Perpignan: https://www.rugby.com.au/news/former-wa ... de-2025827

Feels like a waste of a bit of his rugby career that could conceivably have included playing agains the Lions, but I'm sure he will be able to dry his eyes with the money that he did make. Hopefully this latest failure (after Gray, Scotland-Williamson, Wade, LRZ, etc) will convince both the NFL and rugby players that these are two separate sports with very little in common and we'll have no further poaching going forwards.

Puja

Puja you sound very sensible here but as long as it's not a player that's going to help England win that's leaving rugby to go to the NFL, it's always quite fun to watch from a far and follow. Basically, it'll just take the right player playing in the right position making the transition at the right time for someone to be a big success. Jordan Mailata has obviously been a big success at Offensive Tackle and I suspect a Will Skelton might get somewhere too. I'm not trying to be a clever-dick but I really wasn't ever convinced that LRZ would make it. He's a very traditional rugby winger in the sense that he's really about straight-line speed and running parallel with the touch line. If you don't have time to become an expert in the plays/rules/complexities then it probably just comes down to you being the right type of athlete. So, would Jason Robinson have succeeded on special teams focussed only on kick return, I'm very sure he would've done, as Kolbe might etc. Got to have the right athletic profile for one of the more simple, less tactical but physical positions I suspect.