Aviva Premiership: something exciting happens

[tigerburnie]

https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/rugby/top-14 ... 20334.html

[riocard911]

https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/rugby/top-14 ... 20334.html

Top 14: Cowan-Dickie not expected to join MHR due to missed medical

Luke Cowan-Dickie is not expected to play for Montpellier next season after signing a pre-contract with the MHR. The English international hooker slipped up before going for his medical.

Luke Cowan-Dickie, who had signed a pre-contract with the MHR, is not expected to play for Montpellier next season. The England international hooker (29 years old, 42 caps) slipped up a few hours before going for his medical earlier this week.

The Exeter hooker arrived at the GGL stadium on Tuesday with his representative and was expected to examine his injury which could have prevented him from signing for the French champions. He had just undergone cervical surgery and there was a fear that he would be classified as G3 (This is a classification of the risk incurred by the cervical spine on a scale of 0 to 3. G0: no cervical pathology; G1: pathology that does not lead to contraindication to play rugby competitively; G2: relative contraindication based on a known risk, to be accepted by the player; G3: absolute counter-indication).

A drunken evening

Two days of examinations which should have allowed the Montpelier medical staff to clear up any remaining doubts and validate the big move on the transfer market of the MHR which had already registered the arrival of Sam Simmonds, number 8 from Exeter. But on Wednesday morning, Cowan-Dickie did not turn up for the appointment where everyone expected him to.

The evening before, he had gone out to bars in Montpellier and had ended his evening in a drunk tank. Faced with these actions, the club is now seeking to break the pre-contract signed by the English hooker. The MHR and Philippe Saint-André, director of rugby, did not want to comment on this matter.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Oops.......

[FLIP]

Speculation is that because France has much tougher requirements for players to pass medicals, and LCD currently has a neck injury, rather than run the risk of having his injury be a factor in reducing his likelihood of playing for other clubs outside of France he's done this to force Montpellier to cancel his contract without either triggering penalty clauses or have his injury be public.

Of course this does rely on LCD having some brain cells to rub together but the players at Exeter haven't exactly been members of MENSA over the last few years

[ronk]

Or he might want out of the deal so he can stay in England.

He's set of alarm bells about medicals anyway so he's not really any better off than having a failed medical.

Whatever the reason Montpellier were pretty much forced to cut him loose.

[suisse]

Exeter have recorded 1 win all season on the road in the Gallagher. Can't see them winning the European Cup. They're not very good.

[IanD]

BBC News - Cameron Hutchison: Newcastle Falcons sign Edinburgh centre on two-year deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65397347

Newcastles demise and dropping to the Championship seems to a little overstated or are they doing a Wasps and signing players to make redundant next Autumn?

[FLIP]

BBC News - Cameron Hutchison: Newcastle Falcons sign Edinburgh centre on two-year deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65397347

Newcastles demise and dropping to the Championship seems to a little overstated or are they doing a Wasps and signing players to make redundant next Autumn?

No religation in the Prem this year

[IanD]

BBC News - Cameron Hutchison: Newcastle Falcons sign Edinburgh centre on two-year deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65397347

Newcastles demise and dropping to the Championship seems to a little overstated or are they doing a Wasps and signing players to make redundant next Autumn?

No religation in the Prem this year

I am aware no team is being relagated this year but there are rumors that Newcastle are dropping down voluntarily to cut costs and boost their chances of survival.

[Dexter]

BBC News - Cameron Hutchison: Newcastle Falcons sign Edinburgh centre on two-year deal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65397347

Newcastles demise and dropping to the Championship seems to a little overstated or are they doing a Wasps and signing players to make redundant next Autumn?

No religation in the Prem this year

I am aware no team is being relagated this year but there are rumors that Newcastle are dropping down voluntarily to cut costs and boost their chances of survival.

Woah, really? It turns into more of a #jokeofaleague every week. Sad to see.

[IanD]

No religation in the Prem this year

I am aware no team is being relagated this year but there are rumors that Newcastle are dropping down voluntarily to cut costs and boost their chances of survival.

Woah, really? It turns into more of a #jokeofaleague every week. Sad to see.

Hopefully everything is ok with them as according to Leinster Exile thread Brian Byrne has signed a 2 year deal too.

My worry is John Ryan signed for Wasps in April last year. Could history be repeating?

[blockhead]

No religation in the Prem this year

I am aware no team is being relagated this year but there are rumors that Newcastle are dropping down voluntarily to cut costs and boost their chances of survival.

Woah, really? It turns into more of a #jokeofaleague every week. Sad to see.

Not as sad as it used to be.

[tigerburnie]

Newcastle were never going to ask for a drop down the league, gutter press trying to sell papers, Falcons cutting their cloth well is my opinion. There is to be around 100 players with no club for next year in the Premiership with clubs coming under the lower wage cap. A fair few of the players going abroad as wages are cut in England to try and get the game stable after the covid season and then the financial upheaval globally. Some of these players were also formerly with Wasps and Worcester, who both look unlikely to be playing next season.

[naraic]

Newcastle are struggling but if they need to cut their cloth I'd expect it to be the rugby league team (Newcastle Thunderers and Newcastle Falcons are owned by the same company) rather than the Rugby Union team.

The rugby league team is at the foot of the second tier of rugby league in England and is going to struggle to avoid relegation. The rugby league team income will go down with relegation and salaries will have to fall accordingly.

[Flash Gordon]

London Irish didn't pay their players last month and have £30million of debt. Not looking good for them.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d8ec ... 91ddd95720

[blockhead]

This bit at the end

The financial crisis across the league has deepened in recent years. According to a parliamentary investigation, Premiership clubs each lose, on average, £4 million a year. Premiership Rugby failed to secure an uplift on its broadcasting deal with BT Sport. Every club is now saddled with government debt of between £10-15 million after taking out loans to stay afloat during the pandemic.

Premiership Rugby is working to relaunch the league in 2024 as a ten-team competition, removing clashes with Test matches to ensure England players are available more often.

Promotion and relegation was due to return at the end of next season, via a play-off between the bottom side in the Premiership and the Championship winners, but that is now highly unlikely to happen.

There is an acceptance around the Premiership that something radical needs to change if the league is to attract more investment and avoid sinking further into the financial abyss.

[riocard911]

The full Times article: https://archive.ph/UltWZ.

Makes for very sobering reading for fans of and all involved in English professional rugby.

[neill_m]

Chris Foy
@FoyChris
·
4m
Latest on London Irish. Players called to a meeting at 8.30 this morning where they were told by club CEO + Howard Thomas of Redstrike Group (prospective buyers) that money had been transferred for wages, which would be paid later today.

[Flash Gordon]

This bit at the end

The financial crisis across the league has deepened in recent years. According to a parliamentary investigation, Premiership clubs each lose, on average, £4 million a year. Premiership Rugby failed to secure an uplift on its broadcasting deal with BT Sport. Every club is now saddled with government debt of between £10-15 million after taking out loans to stay afloat during the pandemic.

Premiership Rugby is working to relaunch the league in 2024 as a ten-team competition, removing clashes with Test matches to ensure England players are available more often.

Promotion and relegation was due to return at the end of next season, via a play-off between the bottom side in the Premiership and the Championship winners, but that is now highly unlikely to happen.

There is an acceptance around the Premiership that something radical needs to change if the league is to attract more investment and avoid sinking further into the financial abyss.

The holes that are being dug are too deep to fill without a fundamental change. Appreciate that they might be open to change but they actually need to come up with a vision and plan for change, it won't just fall out of thin air. A real lack of leadership there. I'd love to see the IRFU take the London Irish franchise and create an Exiles club in the URC but I think that would need RFU approval.

More generally in English rugby, they could copy our model of course and that would make a lot of sense but it took us 10 years to implement that and for it to bed in. I know poor leadership and no small measure of arrogance caused this but you've got to feel for the players, coaches and fans.

[IanD]

This bit at the end

The financial crisis across the league has deepened in recent years. According to a parliamentary investigation, Premiership clubs each lose, on average, £4 million a year. Premiership Rugby failed to secure an uplift on its broadcasting deal with BT Sport. Every club is now saddled with government debt of between £10-15 million after taking out loans to stay afloat during the pandemic.

Premiership Rugby is working to relaunch the league in 2024 as a ten-team competition, removing clashes with Test matches to ensure England players are available more often.

Promotion and relegation was due to return at the end of next season, via a play-off between the bottom side in the Premiership and the Championship winners, but that is now highly unlikely to happen.

There is an acceptance around the Premiership that something radical needs to change if the league is to attract more investment and avoid sinking further into the financial abyss.

The holes that are being dug are too deep to fill without a fundamental change. Appreciate that they might be open to change but they actually need to come up with a vision and plan for change, it won't just fall out of thin air. A real lack of leadership there. I'd love to see the IRFU take the London Irish franchise and create an Exiles club in the URC but I think that would need RFU approval.

More generally in English rugby, they could copy our model of course and that would make a lot of sense but it took us 10 years to implement that and for it to bed in. I know poor leadership and no small measure of arrogance caused this but you've got to feel for the players, coaches and fans.

I know you have an affiliation to London Irish and it is a drum you have been banging for a long time but seriously why would the IRFU take over an non entity of a organisation with no real link back to any of the myriad of clubs it emerged from who have no home ground and are £30 million in debt?

That's a lot of rugby balls for kids back home.

[heno]

What's the point of the irfu investing money in a urc franchise based in another country vs a 5th province based in Ireland? Is it attracting young English born players into a feeder system for team ireland? Is it to give Irish expats games to watch? I just don't see the point.
It the premiership was a huge pie that we wanted a slice of or something, maybe, but obviously that's proving not to be the case.

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