RugbyRebels

Puja wrote: ↑Mon Aug 25, 2025 11:50 pm

Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Mon Aug 25, 2025 11:15 pm 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

Puja wrote: ↑Mon Aug 25, 2025 11:50 pm 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.

Danno wrote: ↑Tue Aug 26, 2025 12:08 am 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

twitchy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 30, 2025 6:57 am 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.

twitchy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 30, 2025 6:57 am 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.

Jackie Lorenzetti wrote:"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.”

Puja wrote: ↑Mon Sep 01, 2025 12:32 pm https://www.planetrugby.com/news/racing ... en-farrell

Jackie Lorenzetti wrote:"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 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 01, 2025 3:38 pm

Puja wrote: ↑Mon Sep 01, 2025 12:32 pm https://www.planetrugby.com/news/racing ... en-farrell

Jackie Lorenzetti wrote:"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.

FKAS wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 2:41 pm https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/news/hep ... thway-role

Puja wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 6:26 pm

FKAS wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 2:41 pm https://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/news/hep ... thway-role

That is wild. Awfully forgiving for a man who was effectively fired twice, first from being head coach and then from the club entirely. You suspect that a lot of peacemaking has gone on by Baxter to mend the relationship between Hepher and Rowe. I have to say I would not be thrilled at going back in his shoes.

Can't imagine he was short of a job offer either. If he's willing to drop down to academy coach, his credentials there are impeccable. I'd have him with England U20s in a heartbeat.

Puja

jimKRFC wrote: ↑Fri Sep 05, 2025 12:51 pmRaff Weston, fly half, from Dings Crusaders and former Bath Academy and Beechen Cliff pupil is now in his final year at the University of Bath.

fivepointer wrote: ↑Fri Sep 05, 2025 2:44 pm Good initiative from Bristol in giving players a chance who might otherwise drift out of the game.

Be interesting to see how this goes.