LEICESTER TIGERS 2018/19 SQUAD/TRANSFERS/CONTRACT THREAD PART 4

[Scuttle]

Well according to Fissler in the Rugby Paper:

Quins look to have won the race to sign Will Evans

Gloucester are struggling to get Jake Polledri to re-sign for next season.

Manu Tuilagi is considering a move to Racing Metro (you'd think they'd get the name right! Racing 92)

I know the Evans and Tuilagi rumours have been ongoing for a while but just thought I'd mention what's been written in the paper.

I said to my wife after the first Racing match this season that I thought Manu might leave for Racing at the end of this season. It was just a hunch based on the body language between him and the Racing players during the game. As such obsolutely no foundation and I do hope I am proved wrong.

[Scott1]

Or could we aim to play Thompson as our first choice 7 and promote Reffell and Gough? But surely we have to get someone in if Evans and BoC are going,Kwagga Smith?

[Scott1]

Can't see Manu going,not after the way he's been looked after with all his injuries. I would be very disappointed if he did leave. Plus he won't get picked for England if he's in France and he's in top form at present.

[Scuttle]

Not sure how many games Evans has played over the last 2 seasons but it can’t be that many due to injury and illness, and the way openside flankers play he will get injured again.

Can someone explain to me how we are going to miss what we haven’t had.

Also this could be a another case like Logo where they have offered more than Tigers feel he’s worth

I think I am with you on this although I also think I must be alone in thinking Evans has not actually bern THAT good for us and I think he can be replaced by an equivalent or better.

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Thompson isn't a natural 7, Matera is more a 7 than him, the Pumas shirt numbers are misleading.
Evans is the best proper English 7. (if you don't count BOC). We at present have the best two proper 7's in the league......still neither them can hold a candle to Kronfeld.

[Scott1]

Evans was superb before the injury ,stats regularly looked like 10 runs for 50 metres,10/12 tackles and a couple of turnovers per game. Another like Wells criminally underplayed under MoC and when he did and performed well was then dropped as soon as BoC was back. To me he should be heir apparent to BoC but sadly unlikely to happen. It's mitigated though if Reffell has re-signed and Gough turns out to be as good as I've heard.

[Scott1]

Dai Young's lad is the GP best 7 imo.

[Scott1]

Dai Young's lad is the GP best 7 imo.

[BFG]

When I've watched Evans his work has been tied up in midfield and around a lot of bosh in my opinion which is probably more about the teams struggles in general.
When I've seen Young play well at Wasps he is able to get around the park a lot more and pick his moments better when enforcers like Launchbury play and with the line breaking threat that they bring across the park.
The general feeling I got about Evans was that he was at least up to speed with the game.
I don't think that we have had the opportunity to potentially see the best of him to date.

[Scott1]

The sign of a very good player to me is one that stands out in underperforming teams and not the flat track bully type like say Jamie Heaslip for example. Wasps have been quite poor this season and at times Young has singlehandedly dragged them along,he's been their best player by a country mile this season. Outstanding in the loose and his breakdown work is top notch. Is it always legal? No but the best usually play on the edge of the laws anyway

[LE18]

The sign of a very good player to me is one that stands out in underperforming teams and not the flat track bully type like say Jamie Heaslip for example. Wasps have been quite poor this season and at times Young has singlehandedly dragged them along,he's been their best player by a country mile this season. Outstanding in the loose and his breakdown work is top notch. Is it always legal? No but the best usually play on the edge of the laws anyway

By that criteria, neither Evans nor Reffell stood out yesterday, although we didn't have best of seats and Saints screens are very poor.

[Scott1]

Did Gough get on? And did he look good?

[Hot_Charlie]

Not sure how many games Evans has played over the last 2 seasons but it can’t be that many due to injury and illness, and the way openside flankers play he will get injured again.

Can someone explain to me how we are going to miss what we haven’t had.

Also this could be a another case like Logo where they have offered more than Tigers feel he’s worth

I tend to agree. I suspect if he moves on it will purely be that Quins were able to offer more of a salary than we were based on progress and medical history. If a single player’s salary doesn’t fit with the overall plan for the salary cap, then you struggle to see any option other than letting them go.

[Scott1]

Do we think things will move along quickly now there's no rugby?

[LE18]

Did Gough get on? And did he look good?

Really not sure if he did, Saints announcer plus their screens are poor, Tigers kicked to our end in 2nd half, so could not see numbers on back of our white kit shirts, like I said we didn't get best view of match, but got good view of Varndell almost scoring in our corner, sadly he was rolled on his back by Gibson and couldn't get ball down.