Ed Slater

[CitizenRob]

Hello,
Hope you don't mind me posting this here, but I spoke to Ed Slater this week ahead of Gloucester v Leicester. I think there were some interesting things from both teams' perspectives in the interview, including what he thinks of the current Tigers side, the impact of Geordan Murphy and the similarities and differences between the clubs. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/EdSlaterInterview

[JP14]

thanks for the link, I don’t want to restart the old Slater vs May debate so I’ll focus on other aspects of the article.

Gloucester have got to be careful, they have got a Premiership winning team but they still have inconsistency and mentality issues. I think this season Top 4 is just the target, next year they will seriously target the Title methinks. It has to be noted Ackermann has never won a trophy, got a bit of the Clermont finals effect. Just finals and no further.

[Leicestertinytiger]

Thought Slater was an excellent captain last night. Great player for Gloucester and someone you can build a pack around.

Sorry to bring up old wounds but there is two things I never understood with the May Slater swap deal.

Firstly, I thought we got May as there was a clause in his contract which meant for a nominal payment worth a year salary, the player would be released. Therefore, why didn’t we just pay in full in cash and not let Slater go the other way?

Secondly, before the deal, Gloucester had been well known long term admirers of Kitchener, and had tried to sign him at least twice in the past. Therefore, did we let the wrong lock go?

[HantsTiger]

Thought Slater was an excellent captain last night. Great player for Gloucester and someone you can build a pack around.

Sorry to bring up old wounds but there is two things I never understood with the May Slater swap deal.

Firstly, I thought we got May as there was a clause in his contract which meant for a nominal payment worth a year salary, the player would be released. Therefore, why didn’t we just pay in full in cash and not let Slater go the other way?

Secondly, before the deal, Gloucester had been well known long term admirers of Kitchener, and had tried to sign him at least twice in the past. Therefore, did we let the wrong lock go?

IMHO we did, until we got Spencer we've missed a proper enforcer type 2nd row and we've struggled as a result. It showed last night too, as our intensity increased with the introduction of Spencer

[sam16111986]

Thought Slater was an excellent captain last night. Great player for Gloucester and someone you can build a pack around.

Sorry to bring up old wounds but there is two things I never understood with the May Slater swap deal.

Firstly, I thought we got May as there was a clause in his contract which meant for a nominal payment worth a year salary, the player would be released. Therefore, why didn’t we just pay in full in cash and not let Slater go the other way?

Secondly, before the deal, Gloucester had been well known long term admirers of Kitchener, and had tried to sign him at least twice in the past. Therefore, did we let the wrong lock go?

There were rumours at the time that MOC had told Slater he wasn't required. There were concerns over his ability to continue playing regularly with his knees. Like much MOC did this was poorly thought out. Excellent lock who was incredibly unlucky not to play internationally and considering how quickly he stepped in to captain Gloucester he is a quality leader.

[mol2]

Certainly would have kept him over Kitchener who seems to lack the grunt and dynamism required.

Tigers seemed to want to play him in the back row which didn’t help. The past few years where too many of the forward selections were utility players with 4,5,6 and 8 played too much by non specialists.