Silly Season Transfer Rumours 19/20

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Not a great position for Saints, captain and international level hooker looks likely so they've resorted to signing what is at best squad filler. Presumably Haywood and Fish will carry the bulk of the playing time.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Half inched from elsewhere;

TRP Rumours:

Ben Earl - Saracens >>> Bristol (Loan)
Max Malins - Saracens >>> Bristol (Loan)
Ben Spencer - Saracens >>> Bath
Will Spencer - Leicester >>> Bath
Cameron Redpath - Sale >>> Bath
Sonatane Takulua - Newcastle >>> Toulon
Oisin Heffernan - Nottingham >>> Various

Toby Booth apparently joining Ospreys as head coach.

Heffernan is Notts 24 year old Irish tighthead. Normal starting tighthead. Notts are pretty good at picking up young talent that hasn't made the transition between academy and first team and top clubs. Heffernan has a few appearances for Leinster previously.

Bath linked with Lozowski and Redpath suggests they want some more 10 cover or creation in their backline. They've gone bosh at 12 and speed at 13 for a while. Maybe time for a change and playmakers at 10/12 to get the ball in the hands of Roko and Big Joe quicker would make sense.

Any idea which clubs he's rumored to join? He was seen as a good prospect for us but never quite cut the mustard, which to be fair is no shame at Leinster.

No I half inched that from another forum. Not unusual for prem clubs to take a punt on a Championship prop. The Championship is a fairly brutal finishing school for props. Harry Williams and Tomas Francis both came up from the Championship to be internationals for Exeter. Will Stuart, Kyle Sinckler and Dan Cole all England tightheads and all had loans in the Championship. Christian Judge is likely to be capped in the summer and worked his way up the leagues.

Cole, Stuart and Williams all spent time at Nottingham as well so Heffernan is at a club with some pedigree for finishing tightheads. At a guess Wasps, Newcastle, Sale maybe Saints or Tigers might all take a punt on what would be a cheap option.

Thanks for the info Sam. Yeah, there is no doubting the pedigree of the championship when you see all the players that have come from it. I was fuming at the RFU's decision to cut funding to it.

The funding cut is quite frankly a disgrace. At best short sighted incompetence at worst pandering to the elite level of the game in the hope of future pay days and protecting the RFU suits cushy pay.

Unfortunately when cuts "need" to be made it's the poorest that get shafted first. I'd Imagine the money they give to the championship clubs is pennies compare to the revenues the RFU deal with.

Chris Ashton leaves Sale with immediate effect.

LondonTiger wrote:Chris Ashton leaves Sale with immediate effect.

If no paper has the headline ChrAsh Sale Everything Must Go I'll be very dissapointed. 

Any idea whats going on there? Looks like they are paying people up and shipping them out. Potential cap breach that they are trying to fend off or are they in real financial trouble?

I remember Saracens saying they couldnt match his wage demands when he looked to come back from France, which maybe says a lot about the reasons why Sale have had to clear their books a bit.

He has not been playing much for them, so it has not been a good investment on their part. You would imagine he might be a bit disillusioned about that as well.

Hard to see why they would pay up his contract though, nothing to be saved by doing that.

I imagine we'll hear about Ashton moving to either Japan or France as a medical joker shortly. He's not playing for Sale and Ashton only came back to get into the England side. Saves Sale some money and gets Ashton back playing.

Can't warm to him, Ashton and Care do my head in on the rugby podcast.

BigGee wrote:He has not been playing much for them, so it has not been a good investment on their part. You would imagine he might be a bit disillusioned about that as well.

Hard to see why they would pay up his contract though, nothing to be saved by doing that.

There can be, he may have agreed to have just part of it payed up knowing he can go and get work elsewhere and overall improve his total earnings making it a "win win". His agent may already have sniffed out some opportunities. 

Either way its been a poor investment by Sale, and he does seem to have given up a bit after missing out on the world cup. Poor attitude, so much promise in his early years thats never really been fulfilled.

Short term move to Quins the suggestion in RugbyPass for Ashton.

What's happened to Earle. He got injured mid year and not seen anything on his recovery. Thought he was a winger who was going to flourish leaving saracens and getting game time.

Yet another Quins media darling on the BBC!

No 7&1/2 wrote:What's happened to Earle. He got injured mid year and not seen anything on his recovery. Thought he was a winger who was going to flourish leaving saracens and getting game time.

Did a quick search and found this

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-51379341

Hoping to return this spring following doing his ACL last April. Not a nice injury, not nice at all

Exeter Chiefs have confirmed Gloucester's young flanker Aaron Hinckley and Baldwin a young Scarlets utility back for next season.

Tigers have confirmed Shalva Mamukashvilli a 70 odd cap Georgian hooker and Fijian minster Nadolo are signed up for next season.

Ta lost. Did a search but only got results from last year. Bit more serious than I thought.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Exeter Chiefs have confirmed Gloucester's young flanker Aaron Hinckley and Baldwin a young Scarlets utility back for next season.

Tigers have confirmed Shalva Mamukashvilli a 70 odd cap Georgian hooker and Fijian minster Nadolo are signed up for next season.

Is that replacing Kvesic

Bit of a (long term) blow for Gloucester, Hinkley looks a prospect. What do Gloucester keep doing to peeve off young opensides!?

GeordieFalcon wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Exeter Chiefs have confirmed Gloucester's young flanker Aaron Hinckley and Baldwin a young Scarlets utility back for next season.

Tigers have confirmed Shalva Mamukashvilli a 70 odd cap Georgian hooker and Fijian minster Nadolo are signed up for next season.

Is that replacing Kvesic

Maybe long term. Not sure Hinckley will offer as much as Kvesic for a couple more years yet. He's probably half the price though so could be some shrewd succession planning.

Sam...

Exeter seem to be on a drive to recruit young stars of the future.

They have signed a young Welsh U18 or U20 lock forward...and of course the rumours they are after Josh HOdge...

Would suggest some excellent future planning.

They grow plenty of their own as well. Succession planning in key areas is a good idea given the strength of their squad. Dolman isn't getting any younger so Hodge makes sense as an understudy to Hogg.

Kvesic and Armand aren't getting any younger so Hinckley can slot in and learn from them before overtaking them as they age (Armand now 31?).

Young wing/centre from Scarlets is north of 15 stone so could well be a replacement for stalwart Whitten (now 32). Whitten will have another season in him at least to pass on his experience to Baldwin.

Got to admire the thought process and planned development of the squad well in advance.

The Chiefs recruitment and set-up is so impressive.

They are apparently after Malins as well as Hodge so have clearly identified a position to strengthen.

Jacques Vermeulen has been outstanding for them this season. Top tackler in the Currie Cup last season but arrived to little acclaim and won't have cost much at all.

It’s not Corey Baldwin is it, or is it someone I’m less familiar with? The lock forward has a surname I can’t remember, but his first name is Christ. If he’s U20s eligible I would promote him and Carwyn from the U18s because our U20s really need a hand.

mikey_dragon wrote:It’s not Corey Baldwin is it, or is it someone I’m less familiar with? The lock forward has a surname I can’t remember, but his first name is Christ. If he’s U20s eligible I would promote him and Carwyn from the U18s because our U20s really need a hand.

It is him. The outside back.
He wants to play for England.

He’s quite fast and pretty solid. I think he’d come on quite quick if given enough opportunities at a champion team like exeter.

Danny Care says Chris Ashton will be on the BBC podcast next week to say what happened. All Care did say, is that it's not a salary cap issue, or a question of some misdemeanour. He also says Ashton didn't demand to leave.

Ugo Monye said something along the lines of "soemtimes, you just want to be happy".

At a guess, it sounds like Ashton might have asked for a move for family reasons (he dropped out of the world Cup squad to help his wife during her pregnancy), and Sale then decided they could accommodate him sooner rather than later.

We'll soon find out.

Gooseberry wrote:

BigGee wrote:He has not been playing much for them, so it has not been a good investment on their part. You would imagine he might be a bit disillusioned about that as well.

Hard to see why they would pay up his contract though, nothing to be saved by doing that.

There can be, he may have agreed to have just part of it payed up knowing he can go and get work elsewhere and overall improve his total earnings making it a "win win". His agent may already have sniffed out some opportunities. 

Either way its been a poor investment by Sale, and he does seem to have given up a bit after missing out on the world cup. Poor attitude, so much promise in his early years thats never really been fulfilled.

To be fair to him he was mistreated by England a lot. He was a quality winger and scored tries for fun but was overlooked at times. Went to France and carried on smashing records, and was ignored. Came back and did ok but it was too late by then.

Poor management as much as poor player mindset.

yappysnap wrote:...To be fair to him he was mistreated by England a lot....

Lancaster didn't know how to use him. When Jones showed more interest, he got that ridiculously heavy ban which kept him out of the Six Nations, and Jones then overlooked him for the tour to Australia. When he played club rugby he still showed excellent form for Saracens & then Toulon, which stirred Jones' interest again. Their talk after the Baa-baas match encouraged Ashton to return to Britain but he then got another unfair ban in pre-season which kept him out of contention for the Autumn Internationals. Bad timing all round for Ashton during the Jones era.

king_carlos wrote:The Chiefs recruitment and set-up is so impressive.

They are apparently after Malins as well as Hodge so have clearly identified a position to strengthen.

Jacques Vermeulen has been outstanding for them this season. Top tackler in the Currie Cup last season but arrived to little acclaim and won't have cost much at all.

The two SA signings in the summer really do look like Baxter told his scout "go find the two biggest, hardest workhorses you can". His scout delivered. Exeter do generally recruit well. They've been a bit light at lock and signed a couple of age grade players who never really made it to fill the gaps but looks like ahead of next season they'll have sorted that.

king_carlos wrote:The Chiefs recruitment and set-up is so impressive.

They are apparently after Malins as well as Hodge so have clearly identified a position to strengthen.

Jacques Vermeulen has been outstanding for them this season. Top tackler in the Currie Cup last season but arrived to little acclaim and won't have cost much at all.

It's like Falcons have looked at this model and thought, lets do it the complete opposite way. Lets focus on quantity over quality, filling the squad with sub-standard Premiership players on 2 to 3 year deals. Also, lets move away from youth and give starts to the older generation who may retire at any point, even though we would walk this league with 50% of our academy selected. Lets also change the lineup every week so we never get any combinations or partnerships built coming back to the Prem.

It must be rubbish being an Exeter fan.......

Sgt,

Your starting to sound like me

I hope hodge and malins dont both go there. Daw malins as a real potential 15 for now and he would be then going against Hogg and hodge surely needs a club with a bit more potential game time than he'd get there with those guys?

du Toit to Quins off. Coetzee and Kriel are maybe heading to Bulls in SA. Vermeulen too, but I’m not sure which one they referred to, Duane?

Mikey Duane Vermulan is already at the Bulls.

No 7&1/2 wrote:I hope hodge and malins dont both go there. Daw malins as a real potential 15 for now and he would be then going against Hogg and hodge surely needs a club with a bit more potential game time than he'd get there with those guys?

Steenson isn't getting any younger (36 in April), Chiefs might be thinking of Mallins as a flyhalf. Be a nice different option to Simmons as well. Be a useful option to have in the squad on match day Chiefs could name Mallins and new signing Baldwin on the bench and cover 10 to 15.

Damn i'd really hoped we were signing du Toit, is he staying or going somewhere else Mikey?

Staying in SA until the Lions tour at least, then he may look overseas. He has to be one of SA rugby’s top earners anyway.

Oh well, Ashton will do just as good a job i'm sure...

If you want a like for like, it would be worth checking if Jacques Du Plessis is departing Montpellier.

Chris Ashton to Quins confirmed on BBC

So the unbiased BBC will have a rugby podcast with two current and one former Quins player on it.

That is not right.

Sicking this week listening to Danny Care saying it was a penalty try because he could have scored.

BBC in London bias shocker...

Not a problem for me if I want a rugby podcast BBC Radio Leicester do a Tigers orientated one which is perfectly biased to my requirements.

Wasps sign Ryan Mills from Worcester.

Pretty pleased with that, there's a definite drop-off in quality at 12 for us when Gopperth isn't playing; Booj hasn't developed into the prem standard we hoped for. With Fekitoa and JDJ at 13, this has the making of a pretty decent centre lineup!

mikey_dragon wrote:du Toit to Quins off. Coetzee and Kriel are maybe heading to Bulls in SA. Vermeulen too, but I’m not sure which one they referred to, Duane?

Fingers crossed Coetzee isn't going anywhere. He's contracted until 2022 so there'd have to be a decent offer on the table for Ulster to let him go. He has stated in the past that he was keen to repay Ulster's loyalty in sticking with him through his injury woes.

Rinsure wrote:Wasps sign Ryan Mills from Worcester.

Pretty pleased with that, there's a definite drop-off in quality at 12 for us when Gopperth isn't playing; Booj hasn't developed into the prem standard we hoped for. With Fekitoa and JDJ at 13, this has the making of a pretty decent centre lineup!

Hell of a signing for Wasps. Mills is an often underrated player. Had he not had some bad luck with knee injuries he might have made the step up to higher recognition.

Great news for Wasps. Very happy with that signing

Pete330v2 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:du Toit to Quins off. Coetzee and Kriel are maybe heading to Bulls in SA. Vermeulen too, but I’m not sure which one they referred to, Duane?

Fingers crossed Coetzee isn't going anywhere. He's contracted until 2022 so there'd have to be a decent offer on the table for Ulster to let him go. He has stated in the past that he was keen to repay Ulster's loyalty in sticking with him through his injury woes.

Pretty good if he did stay. I’m not sure SA rugby could afford that either. Are they desperate at 8? I don’t know but you would assume not.

mikey_dragon wrote:If you want a like for like, it would be worth checking if Jacques Du Plessis is departing Montpellier.

Montpellier have been letting go of non FQP backs as guys like Jacques du Plessic and Nico Janse van Rensburg are so important to their pack. Nagusa has already moved on mid-season after 10 years with them, Nadolo and Francois Steyn leaving in the summer.

Jacques du Plessis is a fantastic player though. Very unfortunate to be playing at the same time as so many great Bok forwards. The du Preez twins at Sale fall into a similar category there.

There's some interesting rumours around very good tier 2 internationals current playing in France with the quotas on FQP players in matchday 23s changing. Beka Gorgadze (Georgia), German Kessler (Uraguay), Tijiuee Uanivi (Namibia) and Manuel Linedekar (Uraguay) are all currently playing in the Top 14 or Pro D2, rumours about them talking to clubs in other leagues. Both Prem and Top League. They are all outstanding players that don't get seen as much due the countries they play for.

Yeah I noticed the clear out. Assumed it would be for some forwards as well but like you allude to, massive forwards are very important in that league. Is there a new focus to develop halfbacks in France? Aside from the current ones I don’t recall any decent french ones for the last 8 years.

The effects of a much more professional U20 set-up that's now translating into the senior side in my opinion. Not really concentrating on any particular positions.

Serin debuted 4 years ago it's easy to forget. France were just comically inconsistent back then.

At fly-half they relied on Trinh-Duc for a long time and didn't really give others like Tales or Lopez much of a go. Parra and Machenaud dominated the scrum-half berth for years.

They've got talent coming through everywhere now.

He was a Poopie but Parra was a very good no9

As well as Baldwin, Exeter had signed Christ Tshiunza to their academy. I finally remembered his name. Both are highly rated and EQ. Clever by Exeter.

Earl and Malins re-sign with Sarries through to 2023 but will go on loan to Bristol for next season.

Huge coup for Sarries to keep them both when then come back up.

mikey_dragon wrote:As well as Baldwin, Exeter had signed Christ Tshiunza to their academy. I finally remembered his name. Both are highly rated and EQ. Clever by Exeter.

Exeter's recruitment is excellent. It does help that Devon is a beautiful place to live and isn't an expensive a place to be so money goes further than say those that live close to London or in Bath. Bristol isn't that cheap a place to be either. The way Rob Baxter has taken his team on again and again with each iteration showing more talent than the one before. Each summer they manage to unearth more unheralded quality.

Carlos, you're right. Sarries have played a blinder there. Great piece of business keeping Malins and Earl. Two high quality players to come back in when they come back up and both at an age where they've got years in the tank. They'll learn and develop in their solitary season under Lam at Bristol so double bonus for Sarries.