Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate to Racing Metro

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/22086537

Racing Metro very quickly becoming the new Toulon?

Not quite like Toulon.

Toulon sign ageing well known players who are 30+.

Interesting to see the age comparison of Toulon vs Leicester in the recent quarter final for example.

Racing Metro are signing players supposedly in their prime - Sexton is 27, Lydiate is 25 and Roberts 26.

beshocked wrote:
Interesting to see the age comparison of Toulon vs Leicester in the recent quarter final for example.

Average age of the Toulon pack was 33, Leicester's was 27.


Racing are signing players who still have international careers, unlike Toulon.

LondonTiger wrote:

beshocked wrote:
Interesting to see the age comparison of Toulon vs Leicester in the recent quarter final for example.

Average age of the Toulon pack was 33, Leicester's was 27.


Racing are signing players who still have international careers, unlike Toulon.

That should be heartening for you as a Tigers fan. The problem is England are likely to pinch them like they have so far with Parling,Cole,T.Youngs and Croft. I expect Kitchener and Slater might be called up at some point too.

That's true. It's very useful to have players who won't get call ups even if they are still very good players.

Racing Metro are likely to lose their best players like Cicero,Bergamasco,Fall,Imhoff,Schwarzedski,Lydiate,Sexton,Roberts,Hernandez for parts of the season.

Toulon in contrast keep the likes of Wilkinson,Giteau,Armitage brothers,Sheridan,Hayman,Botha throughout the season.

Yep you're both right, what Racing are doing is probably more effective as well.

Sexton and Roberts in midfield sounds like a cracking combination.

not quite toulon yet but seems to be the intention of their owner

if you add the 2 props from northampton, sexton and kruger from the bulls they could probably field a team with up 11 foreigners but more likely 7 or 8 max (as some of them wont be 1st choice).

their next year squad could look like that ( have put the 1st choices in bold but some them are really my very own guess)
:
LH prop: Ben Arous - Tongahui'ia - Brugnaut - kinshagisvili
Hooker: Szarzewski - Lacombe - ?
TH prop: Ducalcon - Mujati - Coetzee
2R: Kruger - Ghezal - Van Der Merwe - Metz
2R/BR: Qovu
BR 6/7: Lydiate - Lauret - Battut - LeRoux
6/7/8: Gerondeau
N8: Cronje - Matadigo
SH: Machenaud - Descons - Magnaval
FH: Sexton - Wisniewski
Centres: Roberts - Estebanez - Chavancy - Dumoulin
Centres/wing: Vakatawa
wing: Imhoff - Planté - Andreu
wing/fb: Fall
fb/fh: Hernandez , Dambielle

a fair amount of foreigners are leaving or retiring (or going to japan/bath) : Bobo, Leo, Lo cicero, orlandi, carizza, bergamasco etc.

I wonder if roberts will struggle with the demand of playing next year. It won't be like previous years where he's been pulled from Blues games due to Team Wales, he will be expected to play for metro during the 6 nations like the rest of the french contingent. Would be interesting to see if he can complete a season by playing more games for his club than country.

whocares they would be still 4th tier in the HC wouldn't they? Racing Metro would certainly be a 4th tier side to avoid!

I dont think Roberts will have to play during the 6N. most french internationals are rested nowadays. I would be more concerned with the 4 autunm international games and the lion tour which will probabaly mean he will be missing most of the start of the season.

beshocked wrote:whocares they would be still 4th tier in the HC wouldn't they? Racing Metro would certainly be a 4th tier side to avoid!

Yes, while Leicester might drop down to the 3rd Tier, should Clermont win HEC and Leinster not win Amlin.

That means you could have a group of:

Clermont, Ulster, Leicester, Racing.

beshocked wrote:whocares they would be still 4th tier in the HC wouldn't they? Racing Metro would certainly be a 4th tier side to avoid!

probably still 4th yes
I wont be scared of Racing next year. as a saracens follower, you might have realised in the recent past that they are truly inconsistent (they usually start the year quite badly and finish well) and this will not improve with so much change of personnel (coaches, 5/6 key players that are potential starters). The likes of Sexton and Roberts will be probably lost during the 1st 6 month.

LondonTiger wrote:

beshocked wrote:whocares they would be still 4th tier in the HC wouldn't they? Racing Metro would certainly be a 4th tier side to avoid!

Yes, while Leicester might drop down to the 3rd Tier, should Clermont win HEC and Leinster not win Amlin.

That means you could have a group of:

Clermont, Ulster, Leicester, Racing.

That would be a deadly pool. Leicester as 3rd tier? Really? That's laughable.

At least Clermont and Leinster should both be same seeding which means now we can't get both.

http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/ranking.php

This is the current ERC rankings.

Biarritz - 3rd best side in Europe?

laughable indeed - any team that top their pool in the HC should be guaranteed to be at least 2nd tier in the following year.

whocares I agree.

This season you had Clermont as 2nd tier, Saracens as 3rd, Toulon as 2nd.

Munster are the only tier 1 side and they are probably the least fancied to progress of the 4 teams left.

Racing Metro are inconsistent I agree but potentially dangerous. They beat Munster this season in their 1st match. Almost turned Saracens over.

whocares wrote:I dont think Roberts will have to play during the 6N. most french internationals are rested nowadays. I would be more concerned with the 4 autunm international games and the lion tour which will probabaly mean he will be missing most of the start of the season.

That may very well be the case, i just remember seeing that Phillips was playing for Bayonne during the six nations weeks off - maybe that's due to their league.