John Afoa signs long term contract with English Premiership club.

First topic message reminder :

I'm intrigued as to which AP club has got him.  His wife and kids are in NZ and apparently his wife can't dig Belfast.  The talk initially was that he would go back to NZ to try and get a place in the 2015 World Cup squad.  The the talk was a big spending French club.  Which ever English outfit has got him has done particularly well, hes been easily in the top 3 tightheads in the European game over the last 2 seasons.

So, which English club is it?

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/news/latest/2013/12/john-afoa-to-leave-ulster.aspx

Because I doubt he will be missing for key games,

It will prob be arranged on the games like the LV cup matches.

Why do you think he will be away for Key matches?

Based on the amount of time he has been missing for Ulster to see his wife.

If that doesn't change he will be away for a hell of a lot more than the LV games

Welly wrote: Because I doubt he will be missing for key games,

It will prob be arranged on the games like the LV cup matches.

Why do you think he will be away for Key matches?

I hope Afoa works at well for Gloucester, but like Geoff I'm dubious.  Its pretty idealistic if you think you are going to be able to choose which games Afoa misses.  Ulster could have done that making sure he missed games against Zebre for example but thats not how it materialized, as on at least one occasion Afoa just took off to NZ without arranging it with the club, he cited personal reasons for this.  If he doesn't have to travel back and forth to NZ then be prepared for his wife to decide that she doesn't like Gloucester and go back to NZ.  What exactly the problem she had with Belfast .... I don't know.  All our other foreigners and their families are very happy here so its definitely an individual case in the case of Afoa.

Also add in the Play off game, as Glous won't get into them

But at this moment in time we don't know if Afoa family is or isn't coming over.

And maybe it in the contract already as 4 years is a long time, maybe glous used this to cut some money off and use Hibbard as the Marquee it all speculation.

What will happen will happen.

Afoa has a 4 year deal with Gloucester

A man whose head is in NZ - I reckon we have missed a bullet.
Looking forward to seeing who is the replacement

It's a win win here. If the wife relocates then Glaws get a top, top player. If not Gloucester will have to prioritise the big games but then they have the Lav and most likely no European games to contend with. I think they could sort it out well enough.

Meanwhile we lose a guy who while brilliant hasn't his heart in the place.

Standulstermen wrote:It's a win win here. If the wife relocates then Glaws get a top, top player. If not Gloucester will have to prioritise the big games but then they have the Lav and most likely no European games to contend with. I think they could sort it out well enough.

Meanwhile we lose a guy who while brilliant hasn't his heart in the place.

This basically my point Geoff about the Scrum was that Glous are desperate for a scrum not so much against the smaller teams but mainly against Saracens, Tigers bath and saint.

Ulster meanwhile have a big enough pack not to fully miss him, there will be a slight void but with the extra doe could if they want to find a replacement.

Have to amit it I'm disappointed with Afoa.

He a great player and I'm happy the way Ulster have treated him giving him the time off to travel home.

its that he's signed for an English club that annoys me. His wife wasn't happy in Belfast fair enough and I thought that a move back to NZ or possibly to France would have made the family happier but Gloucester why would his family be any happier in Gloucester than Belfast??? Weather isn't much better or anything.

I can see his point if its a four year contract as it will take him until retirement, and I doubt that any club will be as good as Ulster have been in giving him time to jet half way round the world every chance there is.

Anyway good luck to him, and lets see what magic Humph can conjure up next for us.


As an aside I wonder do the prem teams do the same think as some US sports teams that have salary caps, and star player rules.

In US instead of having one star player on a 3 year contract out side the cap, they have 3/4 star players on 3 year deals and player A will have a huge contract in year 1 and average in year 2 and 3
then player B will have average in year 1, huge in year 2, average in year 3
then player C will have average in year 1 and 2, huge in year 3,

That way you can have 3 star players each has one huge year on their contract that is outside the wage cap, so the total each player gets over the 3 years is the same as one big 3 year star player contact. I suspect that some English teams are starting to do this.

Wood, Hibbard and Afoa in the front row with Morgan, Robson, Burns (?), May, 36, Trinder and Cook tearing it up! I'm in dreamland already. Shame we won't have Heineken Cup rugby.

The Weather in NZ is pretty similar to that in the UK to be honest. But I am also assured, strongly, by my Irish girlfriend that the weather in Dublin (which I assume geographically to be better than that of Belfast, wrongly or rightly) is significantly worse all year than that of South England

EnglishReign wrote:Wood, Hibbard and Afoa in the front row with Morgan, Robson, Burns (?), May, 36, Trinder and Cook tearing it up! I'm in dreamland already. Shame we won't have Heineken Cup rugby.

Don't they say that a new front row takes months to click though?

The thing is homesickness is not a rational thing and very doubtful a move from Belfast to Gloucester will resolve.

Personal experience on this - went to Australia and came home (after 6 months) as I was homesick.
Since been and love the place and cannot understand why I didn't stay...but at the time.
Mind you would not have met my wife or had the family I have so ever cloud  

You just can't tell - its a big gamble to secure a 4 year contract.
I would not be surprised if there are not get out clauses to cover

geoff999rugby wrote:The thing is homesickness is not a rational thing and very doubtful a move from Belfast to Gloucester will resolve.

And just as irrationally the move could be the exact thing that does fix it. Wait and see. If it doesn't pan out it's Gloucester's loss. I am surprised he's going to a Championship side  

So will Glos have the best front row in the championship  

However lovely or otherwise Belfast is - its a long way from everything else in a way that Gloucs isnt. Little things like that can make a big difference how you feel about things - as I know from having lived in Swansea for too long.

It is also true that there is no guarantee Afoa and his family will settle any better in Gloucs - but it is different.

lostinwales wrote:However lovely or otherwise Belfast is - its a long way from everything else in a way that Gloucs isnt.

Its true, it is really quite close to the lovely, civilised city of Bath

Belfast and Gloucester are a lot closer to each other than either is to life in New Zealand.

The Weather in Belfast is similar to Northen Scotland - windy, cold and wet.

Gloucester weather is windy, wet, and less cold than Belfast. Bit like S NZ in fact

4 year deal is huge for such a renowned TH but where are Gloucester getting that money from?

Gloucester turn a profit. Cowen is probably on big bucks and will almost certainly leave. Olly Morgan will leave (although he hardly played) would be on a decent wage (he was actually really good when uninjured). Qera's been mentioned. Morgan's contract buy out will be not included in the cap (although Hibbard has another year apparantly so that will be included)

Afoa is apparently the highest paid player in the premiership now. (he is a very good player but that must be huge amount of money to be the highest paid player)
and Hibbard wont come cheap.

Can't see to much profit to be made although they will be some.

Tightheads have always been the best paid players in the Prem. Hayman, Castro, Cole, Johnston, now Afoa have all been on £300k+ apparently. Even Davey Wilson came to us with a hefty wage of well above what you'd expect for a young lad with no int experience

Gloucester have had a dip in attendance due to their poor form. An improvement could easily see average attendances increase by 3000-4000. 11 home games so about 40000 more tickets sold, £10 would be £400k, £20 would be £800k. No idea how much tickets are.

Gee that is a lot of money for a good but not great Kiwi rugby player. I doubt he would have earnt much more than $200,000 per year in NZ except for when he was reserve for the ABs.
He's a Aucklander and they're pretty soft about cold weather. That's why Woodcock had such a bad year for the Highlanders.

It's confirmed!!  

http://www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk/news/9407.php#.UqGNfNJdU4g

 

One man doesn't make a team  

Good signing HKC, desperately needed. Very interesting to see how he has got over this homesickness though!

Bathite wrote:Good signing HKC, desperately needed. Very interesting to see how he has got over this homesickness though!

 
 
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It's a very good signing but I wouldn't expect him to make an instant impact...

Tightheads do earn the most, right up there above flyhalfs. Worrying if that sets the new benchmark for tighthead salaries though as Dan Cole needs a new contract before the summer of 2015 and his agent will surely ask for parity with the best in the league (as before Afoa, Dan was comfortably the best in the league). Might hurt the Tigers wallet a touch, thankfully Coley is a Leicester lad born and bred so at least won't be poached by the French.

Great signing for Glaws. They desperately need someone to bolster that front row. As for Gloucestershire, It's a nice area. I imagine the Glaws players are similar to the Tigers ones in that they all live in the lovely county surroundings and not the crappy city in the middle. Cheltenham is nice though and Bath isn't far away. Maybe Mrs Afoa is a big cider fan and that's the secret weapon Glaws used to get him on board.

It may have already been said but I'll say it again, I knew Big John was on his way at the end of the season but I feel somewhat betrayed that he's not heading back to NZ. I actually feel like John has been personally unfaithful and he and I should be on the Jeremy Kyle show for a lie detector test........sorry I've seen some early morning TV in the last year
Anyway, he's off to Glouster where the puddles go up to your middle and I truely wish him the very best, he is a huge asset to any team and the Glaws fans should be exciting in the extreme.
I do wonder why Mrs Afoa despised Belfast so much. I mean it's a great city with rural areas all minutes away and the climate difference would be marginal to say the least. I wonder was it more about the world image that's held about Belfast with it's summer troubles and fleg protestors etc etc etc ad nauseam. These things still make people a little uncomfortable so perhaps we can blame the spides and not Mrs Afoa for our loss.

Anyway, farewell big man, I hope we don't have to come up against you in the future.

Best of luck to Afoa, Gloucester are getting one the the best TH's around if they get the best of him.

I have mixed feeling about him leaving - for sure he was a massive player for Ulster, one of the best players ever to pull on the white jersey.  However his form and consistency had dipped markedly towards the end of last season, as had the regularity of his appearances as he struggled to balance his personal life with his commitments to Ulster on the field.

I too am surprised that he chose England rather than a return to NZ. No hard feelings though.

From an Ulster perspective I'd like to see Fitzpatrick, McAllister and Lutton etc. step up to the plate rather than signing another big name NIE TH but we shall see...

Pete330v2 wrote:It may have already been said but I'll say it again, I knew Big John was on his way at the end of the season but I feel somewhat betrayed that he's not heading back to NZ. I actually feel like John has been personally unfaithful and he and I should be on the Jeremy Kyle show for a lie detector test........sorry I've seen some early morning TV in the last year
Anyway, he's off to Glouster where the puddles go up to your middle and I truely wish him the very best, he is a huge asset to any team and the Glaws fans should be exciting in the extreme.
I do wonder why Mrs Afoa despised Belfast so much. I mean it's a great city with rural areas all minutes away and the climate difference would be marginal to say the least. I wonder was it more about the world image that's held about Belfast with it's summer troubles and fleg protestors etc etc etc ad nauseam. These things still make people a little uncomfortable so perhaps we can blame the spides and not Mrs Afoa for our loss.

Anyway, farewell big man, I hope we don't have to come up against you in the future.

Horses for courses. Lots of great cities but they are not always for everyone, and it can be just the way the local people are and how much you can buy into it. And as I said - Belfast is a long way from lots of other places.

Swansea isnt Belfast and there are lots of people who love it, but they generally were either brought up there and surrounded by friends and family, or they bought into the good things it can offer. But for me leaving Swansea was a very happy moment (or would have been if the move itself wasnt so hard...), and I find where I am living now much much better.

lostinwales wrote:

Pete330v2 wrote:It may have already been said but I'll say it again, I knew Big John was on his way at the end of the season but I feel somewhat betrayed that he's not heading back to NZ. I actually feel like John has been personally unfaithful and he and I should be on the Jeremy Kyle show for a lie detector test........sorry I've seen some early morning TV in the last year
Anyway, he's off to Glouster where the puddles go up to your middle and I truely wish him the very best, he is a huge asset to any team and the Glaws fans should be exciting in the extreme.
I do wonder why Mrs Afoa despised Belfast so much. I mean it's a great city with rural areas all minutes away and the climate difference would be marginal to say the least. I wonder was it more about the world image that's held about Belfast with it's summer troubles and fleg protestors etc etc etc ad nauseam. These things still make people a little uncomfortable so perhaps we can blame the spides and not Mrs Afoa for our loss.

Anyway, farewell big man, I hope we don't have to come up against you in the future.

Horses for courses. Lots of great cities but they are not always for everyone, and it can be just the way the local people are and how much you can buy into it. And as I said - Belfast is a long way from lots of other places.

Swansea isnt Belfast and there are lots of people who love it, but they generally were either brought up there and surrounded by friends and family, or they bought into the good things it can offer. But for me leaving Swansea was a very happy moment (or would have been if the move itself wasnt so hard...), and I find where I am living now much much better.

Yeah but New Zealand is a long way from everywhere

I do think Belfast differs from any other UK or Irish city in that there's the yearly tradition of full scale rioting every summer and a view of it (perpetuated by the fact that it's the only thing the world media focuses on) that (and it's an inaccurate view) the place is dangerous and becomes anarchic at these times. Mind you that view seems to ring true for the whole of Nothern Ireland to an extent, a view that hopefully fades into the mists of time.
Anyways, Mrs Afoa simply may not have enjoyed the soda bread

Bathite wrote:Good signing HKC, desperately needed. Very interesting to see how he has got over this homesickness though!

Apparently this has been addressed.  Whilst is has been alluded that his family will be moving to the area, I also wouldn't rule out it being agreed that he can spend the LV portions of the season elsewhere.  Either way I am more than happy!

ChequeredJersey wrote:It's a very good signing but I wouldn't expect him to make an instant impact...

Normally I'd agree with you CJ, but given the state of our scrum at present, it would be hard not to make an instant impact!!