If you could bring back previous signings to your club........

If you had the opportunity to re-sign a player to your club who has moved on who would it be, how would they improve your club?

At ulster I would re-sign Ian Whitten, I was always impressed with his dedication and work rate, he is a really talented player and has improved further since going to the chiefs. I feel he would really add to our squad depth and would provide us with a different type of centre option to the likes of Wallace and marshal.

London Irish:

Slightly debatable (and retrospective!), and includes players confirmed as leaving at the end of the season, but still:

1. Corbisiero
2.
3.
4. Nick Kennedy
5. James Hudson
6.
7. Steffon Armitage
8. Richard Thorpe
9. Paul Hodgson
10. Dan Bowden
11. Adam Thompstone
12. Seilala Mapusua/Steven Shingler
13. Guy Armitage
14.
15. Delon Armitage


Add in JJ, Matt Garvey and Jamie Gibson, who are probably all leaving at the end of the season, and it has the makings of quite a good team!

Tuquiri
36

That's about it. We don't normally lose that many apart from those to our retirement home in the West Country.

I'd happily drive Thorpe back to LI at the end of the season.

If 36 hadn't left the way he did I'd have him back but he did so no.

Agree Tiquiri would be great. Kayser and Tom Youngs has a real appeal and Ben was always consistent when at the club. Wouldn't mind Charlie Walker coming back after he was filched from the academy.

Good call Sam. Forgot about Kayser. Might add Dupuy too.

I think Mele will be the new Dupuy. I was tempted to include Big Jim Hamilton but decided that we have enough locks already.

De Villiers for Munster. We dont have bad 12's per se, but we sure as shoite dont have a good one either. Direct runner, good tackler/defensive operator and takes clever angles coming onto the ball. Decent hands too. And a leader. Nice guy too to top things all off.

We'd play a pretty similar team, tbh!

I'd stop JJ from going, maybe get Ross back. 50-50 on Strettle tbh. Our other good players all retired

Surprised no Leinster fans have chipped in with Rocky Elsom.........the b**tard

tigerleghorn wrote:Surprised no Leinster fans have chipped in with Rocky Elsom.........the b**tard

Given that he got released by the Waratahs last year for poor form ...

He's currently earning his pension at Kobe Steelers.



For the Crusaders I'd like
Brad Thorn
Kahn Fotuali'i
SBW
Casey Laulala
Sean Maitland

(oh and McCaw back from sabbatical and Guildford back from rehab)

formerly known as Sam wrote:

If 36 hadn't left the way he did I'd have him back but he did so no.

A broken heart is always a difficult thing to get over!


For Glaws up until this season it would have been without doubt Gareth Delve, but I do finally feel we've replaced him in Morgan and Kalamafoni. In light of our shortage of locks, as much as it pains me to say it, I think we'd want back Dave "I'll never sign for f****** " Attwood!

Kayser would be good, so that Tom Youngs could have some rest = though as he is back in the France fold we would still need hookers for International windows.

36 back would be nice, but lets face it Cockers would still probably have him bench warming (and yes the way he accepted a new contract and then told us to bugger off does leave a sour taste).

But the player I would most liek back is Tom Varndell. Sure his defence is no better etc - but he has real pace and that is something we have not had since he left.

With respect LT, I could never forget seeing TV at WR walking up and down the touch line, head down and looking totally disinterested.

I think he's better off at Wasps and playing well but he never went looking for work whenever I saw him.

Great pace and finishing but little else for me.

Pedre Wanneburg.

Ulster are really strong at 8 with Williams and Wilson but loved Pedres attitude and commitment. Proper Ulsterman.

I wouldve said kayser if it wasnt for youngs really improving. Same goes four Dupuy with...Youngs. Hawkins and Young/Harrison give reasonable backup options.
Can we have Geordan Murphy back when he first signed his contract? Itd take a year or two but then we'd have a decades worth of top class fullback again.
Now George Ford is going Andy Goode wouldnt be a bad one to get if he wasnt so old. Varndell another.

Not sure TV would help. We need creative players, Goneva, Thompstone, Morris and Tait are all pacey but where is the new Pat Howard or Geordan Murphy.

Now if we could shove Geordan into the fountain of youth...

Matt Gilbert. How the feck did we let him slip through the net?

rodders wrote:Pedre Wanneburg.

Ulster are really strong at 8 with Williams and Wilson but loved Pedres attitude and commitment. Proper Ulsterman.

I was very close to suggesting Pedrie too but seeing as we currently have Williams and Wilson at 8 I though he may be a bit wasted. But I would love him to come back to us. You could tell the jersey meant something to him!!!

Wow where do i start??!!

Pat Lam
Inga Tuigamala
Carl Hayman
Matt Burke
Johnny

Need i go on?

BATH

3. Matt Stevens
5. Steve Borthwick
6. Luke Watson
7.
8. Gareth Delve
10. Freddie burns
12. Olly barkley

Cardiff Blues

1. Rhys Gill
2. T R Thomas
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Andy Powell
9. Richie Rees
10. Nicky Robinson
11. Tom James (leaves this season)
12. Jamie Roberts (leaves this season)
13. Jamie Robinson
14.
15.

From the Scarlets point of view I would love to be able to bring Ben Morgan back, and bring Steve Jones back on a temp. deal to cover Priestland whilst he is missing.

I think the big clubs lose a lot less, so there isn't a big list for them.

The likes of Falcons, and LI are going to have big lists, as players more up.

Surprised Leinster ahven't listed Sexton yet?

For Ulster the only ones who have left and still playing.
Ian Whitten
Willie Faloon
Wannenburg
Isaac Boss
Ryan Caldwell
Carlo del Fava
Andy Kyriacou
Timoci Nagusa
Cillian Willis
jamie Smith

Of them Timoci Nagusa was a favourite of mine,
I lreally liked Wannenburg as well, and Ian Whitten.

number 8 is a position we are strong in, and Wannenburg doesn't have many years left, so its between Whitten and Nagusa.

I'm going to go with Nagusa ok we already have Bowe, Trimble and Gilroy, but the 3 of them should be with Ireland a lot, and Nagusa would be a great option to have durning those times.

Whitten would be my pick but with everyone going for him, I have to be different.

Come home Jimmy, with global warming you may like the weather here soon.

Flip forgot about Neil Best! ..... ....

The likes of Falcons, and LI are going to have big lists

Kingshu, I have done a thread in the past on "your clubs greatest ever side".

Generally Beshocked puts up a Sarries team that is very impressive as are the usual suspects Leicester etc. However you would be very surprised to see how strong the Falcons team is...we've attracted some crazily good players...but seem to lose our local stars...very odd.

For Saracens Census Johnston though as Saracens are signing his brother next season..... so maybe not.

Other than that I can't think of any players who left recently who would strengthen the side.


True Geordiefalcon.

Falcons no doubt have had great players, but when they do have someone good or a promising youngster the bigger fish do take them away.

There was a list of players developed by Falcons and it was impressive, and a lot of them Falcons would have loved to have back, however if it was a Tigers that had these players, most of them wouldn't have left so would never make the players we would like back list.

Its like Giggs gets praise for his loyality being a one club man, but if he had come up through Wigan, rather than UTD, I doubt he'd have been a loyal one club man. Big teams Like Tigers/leinster etc generally keep the players they want (few exceptions) whereas smaller clubs lose them more. I have a lot of respect for Totti, and Gerard as one club men who were at slightly lesser clubs than they could have gone to out of loyality.
Jonny Wilkinson staying with Falcons, when he could have been at a bigger club and earned my respect.

Kingshu wrote:For Ulster the only ones who have left and still playing.
Ian Whitten
Willie Faloon
Wannenburg
Isaac Boss
Ryan Caldwell
Carlo del Fava
Andy Kyriacou
Timoci Nagusa
Cillian Willis
jamie Smith

plus
Anderson
Andress
Cronin
Dougall
Gaston
Humphreys
McCrea
McIlwaine
McKinney
O'Donohue
Sandford
Seymour
Steenson

I'd take Cronin, McIlwaine and McKinney of that lot!

BATH

3. Matt Stevens
5. Steve Borthwick
6. Luke Watson
7. Julian Salvi
8. Gareth Delve
9. Michael Classens
10. Butch James
11. Joe Maddock
12. Olly barkley
13. Matt Carraro
14. ?
15. Freddie Burns

I'd add to that list some of the recent big losses

Ospreys -

Kahn Foutali
Lee Byrne
Paul James

welshman4life wrote:Ospreys -

Kahn Foutali
Lee Byrne
Paul James

Not Craig Mitchell?

My Ospreys choices:

Tommy Bowe
Lee Byrne
Justin Marshall
Ricky Januarie (Not a long term signing for us, but very useful when he was there).
Lee Halfpenny...well he never signed for Ospreys seniors, but we shouldn't have let him leave Ospreylia!

Cari wrote:My Ospreys choices:

Tommy Bowe
Lee Byrne
Justin Marshall
Ricky Januarie (Not a long term signing for us, but very useful when he was there).
Lee Halfpenny...well he never signed for Ospreys seniors, but we shouldn't have let him leave Ospreylia!

What about the "Orange one" Cari?

Seem to remember you having a thing for him on the old 606 no?

For Quins Mike Ross.

No one else springs to mind as a great loss.

We'd always have Beattie and Gray back at Glasgow, but then again if we did we would probably never have signed our big beardie hard case Strauss or brought on the excellent Swinson.

As long as the kids are all playing well, we can remain proud parents at Glasgow.

The only person that we let escape the first time was Mark 'the Messiah' Bennett and he's back now, picking up splinters in his bum from sitting on the bench. That'll larn ya.

But my goodness, he picks up those splinters sooooo well - the boys got class written all over him

He's so good that he's practically Welsh. Apart from the laziness, obviously.

For Edinburgh I'd want Scott Murray back (obviously at the same age he was when he left us). He'd fix our lineout and it would be nice to have a tight five forward at the club who was familiar with smashing into a ruck, rather than gently leaning on one.

The other obvious candidate is Chris Paterson, although we now have Tonks doing a top job at 15 so my preference would be Scott Murray if I had to choose one.

George Carlin wrote:We'd always have Beattie and Gray back at Glasgow, but then again if we did we would probably never have signed our big beardie hard case Strauss or brought on the excellent Swinson.

As long as the kids are all playing well, we can remain proud parents at Glasgow.

The only person that we let escape the first time was Mark 'the Messiah' Bennett and he's back now, picking up splinters in his bum from sitting on the bench. That'll larn ya.

Has Bennett made an apperance yet this season?

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

George Carlin wrote:We'd always have Beattie and Gray back at Glasgow, but then again if we did we would probably never have signed our big beardie hard case Strauss or brought on the excellent Swinson.

As long as the kids are all playing well, we can remain proud parents at Glasgow.

The only person that we let escape the first time was Mark 'the Messiah' Bennett and he's back now, picking up splinters in his bum from sitting on the bench. That'll larn ya.

Has Bennett made an apperance yet this season?

He appears regularly in ASBOs dreams!!

The answer is no, not a second of professional rugby played, unless you're including the Scotland U20 game last weekend.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

George Carlin wrote:We'd always have Beattie and Gray back at Glasgow, but then again if we did we would probably never have signed our big beardie hard case Strauss or brought on the excellent Swinson.

As long as the kids are all playing well, we can remain proud parents at Glasgow.

The only person that we let escape the first time was Mark 'the Messiah' Bennett and he's back now, picking up splinters in his bum from sitting on the bench. That'll larn ya.

Has Bennett made an apperance yet this season?

No, he hasn't - caused in large part by the fact that he was too late to join the Heineken Cup squad because Maitland had already been named as their extra player.

In terms of the league, Glasgow have good and tested centre combinations with Horne, Dunbar, Lamont, Hogg (13 on occasion) and Morrison (Matawalu can and has also popped up as a centre from the bench) so it was always going to be difficult to break in mid-season.

ASBO is a connoisseur of many things. He's usually right about most things. Maybe not now, but sometime, soon.