Ex Players in the News...

swift4prez wrote: Miah nikora playing in Portugal now

Looks like Ciaran Gaffney will be added to zebre squad

Good for him. My sister lives in the north of Italy and it's some lifestyle.

www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2017/0810/896563-piutau-bristol-move/

Pat is splashing the cash...

Everyone is keen to blame the "soccerisation" of rugby when 2 or 3 fans are booing, but i'm isolated when it's about being utterly upset to see 4,5 players like him (and a coach...) in 2nd tier chamionship only because of money. Pure shame
As a consolation consequence, the friendly home game very late in August against those guys may well worth the missing 12th game...

connachta wrote: Everyone is keen to blame the "soccerisation" of rugby when 2 or 3 fans are booing, but i'm isolated when it's about being utterly upset to see 4,5 players like him (and a coach...) in 2nd tier chamionship only because of money. Pure shame
As a consolation consequence, the friendly home game very late in August against those guys may well worth the missing 12th game...

Piutau is joining them at the end of the season, if they're not in the Premiership by then it will be the greatest failure in the history of rugby.

pinky wrote:

Mark Mostyn wrote: if they're not in the Premiership by then it will be the greatest failure in the history of rugby.

Well it'll definitely be in the top 3, along with their failures in 2013/14 and 2014/15

With the playoffs gone I think it'd be worse.

Also don't think they had quite the star studded lineup they have this coming season previously. If they can't win the championship(at a canter) with players like Luatua and Madigan on the books they should just shut up shop.

Bazzo wrote: Also don't think they had quite the star studded lineup they have this coming season previously. If they can't win the championship(at a canter) with players like Luatua and Madigan on the books they should just shut up shop.

It'll be very interesting to see how Pat does over there. I think his strength lay in establishing a high level culture and direction for the team then using his charisma to get players, fans, and media invested. I wonder how easy it'll be to create such a culture with players who absolutely would not be in Bristol if it wasn't for money.

I think Pat relied on his coaches to transfer his overarching strategy to the pitch. The difference in the quality of back play under Bell and then McPhillips was frightening.

Boshoff has signed for the Blue Bulls in the Currie cup.

Gonna miss him.

Mark Mostyn wrote:

Gonna miss him.

Obviously injuries affected him and his playing time recently but he's some player, will miss certainly him.

Connacht gain too, better exposure to high-level, back in 1 or 2 years

Frank Murphy is reffing the Scarlets Kings game this weekend.

Gaffney on bench for Zebre game vs Ospreys