Nah, he’s a posh **** – he will get his “man” to arrange the transfer

AA, so the SOH still hasn’t arrived

Lighten up, in the words of your illustrious coach, “its only banter” 😉

They can’t,all refs are affiliated to WR first and allocated to 6N by the panel that answers to WR. They also control the WC/international 7’s etc and you have to be an affiliate to enter any of those. Add in the fact that Beamont is on the committee and it will be sucked up.

I hope it is for the argentinian union.

Judging by the tweets of ex pros it appears £20k is roughly one match fee so although figure seems high (to me at least) it isn’t too much of a hit for Marler. There was me thinking they earn an honest living when all along these pros are indeed a bunch of posh …. 🙂

Are you not aware of the Jaguares? Things have changed!

Wrecker – no I hadn’t. If their domestic rugby is getting stronger that’s good news.

Edit – now a SR team?? Well, at least their defence will get worse 😈

He’s a fantastic rugby player but unlikely to flourish IF Brizzle are playing premiership rugby next season. He had a great JRWC but the Scarlets have been struggling for a 10 and were insistent that was Williams position when in reality he’s more of a 15 (or winger at a push). Fine at in the Principality but even at Pro 12 level he was exposed at 10 and fell massively out of favour with the Scarlets as a result. The other things that seems to crop up is people mentioning his lack of application and needing to knuckle down but hopefully his time away with the 7’s and a change of scenery turns things around for him. I think the other Welsh regions will feel they are missing out on some potential (Dragons perhaps which isn’t a huge compliment!) but I can see why Brizzle fans aren’t going to be massively excited

His try against Harlequins sums up what he is about

… and what could have been

I’ve no idea how the contracts work but if £20k is a “match fee” then that isn’t bad going when you add in club salary, other contracted payments, sponsorship, event appearances, number of international matches these guys play nowadays, etc. £20k to turn up for 80 60 minutes is alright and will no doubt go a long way to a charity anyway

DanW RF is spunking £500k pa I believe on Rob Andrew 😯

Rugby players have a 10 year career so £300k (?) for an International level player isnt that much in the years they are playing for national team. I think JW went for 750€ to Toulon before taking a cut in his last season to help the club out and Carter is on a lot more.

It is all speculation how much these guys get paid but Mas was reportedly on £384,000 in 2013 with Montpellier so £300,000 as a club salary for Marler probably isn’t a million miles off. A guesstimate £100k for a 6N tournament of match fees is quite a healthy bonus by comparison.

Anyway, it would appear Marler has a 2 week ban and loses the games pay so some punishment, but not super harsh

Which, I reckon most reasonable people wanted in the first place.

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/lee-raikes

Still here. What do I have to do to get sacked around here?? 😆

Warriors just announced they are installing an artificial pitch at Sixways this summer. Cool.

You will read today that Warriors have received approval from Premiership Rugby to install a new artificial grass pitch at Sixways Stadium this summer, becoming the third Aviva Premiership Club to go to an artificial surface alongside champions Saracens and Newcastle Falcons.

I wanted to share this news with you personally before we announce to the media the rationale behind this development.

Our stadium pitch is the single most underutilised asset at the Club as it is currently used for fewer than 100 hours per season.

The condition of our existing clay-based grass playing surface means that we have to allocate eight to ten weeks every summer to refurbish it, thus removing the possibility of summertime playing usage or commercial activity.

Moving to an artificial grass pitch, we will not only see a commercial benefit, but we will be able to offer our players a consistently high-quality playing surface at all times of the year and through all weather conditions on which to train and play as we continue to strive to become an established Premiership Club.

The new pitch will meet World Rugby regulation 22 standards and will be the first in the UK to feature an organic infill rather than the more widely used rubber crumb made from dissected car tyres.

Artificial pitches are essentially carpets of blades of plastic grass with an infill to create a playing surface.

Our pitch, manufactured by leading Italian firm Limonta Sport, uses organic infill rather than rubber crumb and offers significant advantages in terms of cut and abrasion management. Warriors will be the first club in the UK to install such a pitch, which sits at the leading edge of artificial grass pitch technology.

Limonta Sport have developed similar pitches for Italian and French Rugby Clubs and have installed a total of 650 full-size pitches across a number of sports worldwide. They also sit on the RFU framework of approved suppliers of artificial grass pitches.

The pitch, which sits on a rugby-specific shock pad, consists of two elements – grass and infill. The grass is a product called MAX S turf 65mm and the infill is a product called Geo XTRE 60.

The artificial grass fibres are low slide resistant, negating burns when an athlete slides on the surface. The S shaped individual blades return to the upright position automatically.

The organic infill is a natural brown colour and consists of organic mix including shredded coconut fibres and gives the impression of being 100 per cent natural as players get muddy rather than suffering friction burns. It is hypoallergenic and natural in odour. Crucially for rugby, it provides perfect foot stability – enhancing safety for players.

Astroburns!

So that’s three pitches certain players won’t play on – how long before clubs start saying “we’re paying your wages son, you play when we tell you” ?

Twickenham is a hybrid (mixture of artificial and real grass), the rugby pitches are completely different to hockey pitches as they have bladed “grass”, which is why you use bigger studs on them.

Well GB Sevens look to be on course for the Olympics.

In a condensed GB programme the event, along with tournaments on the Rugby Europe Sevens Series, will form part of the squad’s preparations for the Rio Olympics.

Team GB Head Coach Simon Amor said: “The GB training programme begins in May and Sevens and the City plays an important role as we make step progressions through the summer.

No mention of any squad names yet, just a brief mention of “various XVs players” looking to get involved. Never mind that everyone else has been integrating their XVs players for months already and fine tuning their existing squads. The GB squad can’t play in any HSBC World 7s events so will be in the European events only. Who came up with that? Surely a deal could have been done to get them into the HSBC series in Olympic year. It’s not like nobody knew the Olympics were coming up……..