Leicester Tigers 2016/17 Squad/Transfers/Contract thread.

[Tigerbeat]

Fonua off to Newcastle.... going to leave us light at 8 (no pun intended)!

Where have you got that info from?

[PM76]

Confirmed here- http://www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk/news/ ... le-falcons

Suspect this means we may well see two sevens in the backrow fairly often next season- good news for Will Evans' prospects of game time as well.

[fentiger]

John Eveley, Stamford Merc, on Twitter!

[sapajo]

Confirmed by Crowson on twitter, he is already with his new club.



Martin Crowson
‏@martin_crowson

Opeti Fonua has left @LeicesterTigers and joined the Newcastle Falcons.


Martin Crowson ‏@martin_crowson 7m7 minutes ago

Dean Richards says he is "already up here training with us" and calls him a "big physical specimen".

[Dr H Flashman MBE]

That is strange. I thought last season we were getting him to peak fitness with a special Marine personal trainer. I thought he had potential to be a real go forward force for us. Maybe we have another number 8 up our sleeve...Or as said before we will be going for a more dynamic back row.
Bit sad by this, unless there was something else behind the scenes or face just didn't fit.

[kpj tiger]

I would hope we have somebody coming in as it leaves us with no specialist 8's, although I could see us going with a backrow of 6. Williams 7. Evans 8. O'Connor with either Hamilton or Mcaffery on the bench

[sapajo]

That is strange. I thought last season we were getting him to peak fitness with a special Marine personal trainer. I thought he had potential to be a real go forward force for us. Maybe we have another number 8 up our sleeve...Or as said before we will be going for a more dynamic back row.
Bit sad by this, unless there was something else behind the scenes or face just didn't fit.

Shame he has gone, his broken arm was bad luck and it certainly did not help when it broke again upon his return. Who knows it may be TTTE all over again. Anyways it will be interesting to see whether we keep or reinvest his considerable wages to sign a top quality No8, in the mould of Billy Vunipola, Nathan Hughes or indeed Louis Picamoles!

[JackFlashJonny]

Surely to let him go we have to be in the market for a top 8??

When you look at the 8's around the premiership and then us it really is a sorry sight I am hoping this means we have someone on our radar..Any good SH 8's out of contract that AM could have got us?

One thing is for sure he definitely didn't fit AM mould of an 8 and what they can do..will be intrigued to see how he goes for Newcastle

[longlivethecrumbie]

We could, easily, end up with three 7s with BOC at 8, McCaffrey at 6 and Evans at 7. BOC played a lot of provincial rugby in NZ at 8 and he's had a full summer off this time, unlike last year.

[Latecomer]

I know Fonua was unlucky with injuries last season, but there did appear to be a genuine problem with his condition as demonstrated by the Royal Marine trainer the club hired for him. Maybe they have finally admitted defeat trying to get him in the shape they want him to be?

[MrPartridge]

I think people here are being kind to Fonua... for a guy with his natural size he should be a hell of a player. Can't remember one good game he had for us last year.

Also stumbled on the Euro SF game on BT the other day... 1. a pity for us we had to play him 2. a really poor performance to boot.

I doubt our coaching team were ripping up trees (a bit like his playing style really) to keep him.

[wormus]

Brad Thorn is coming out of retirement! I hope his body holds together.
http://www.planetrugby.com/news/brad-th ... gby-boots/

[baz1664]

I would like to see Mike Williams given a run at 8, powerful, aggressive ball carrier, as for Fonua, massive bloke but was slow and sluggish and made little impact, maybe frees some cash up to look at at a replacement?

[jgriffin]

I keep thinking we are one big signing missing, hope it could be a class 8. Having said that, Williams could do a job for us.

[Hot_Charlie]

We could, easily, end up with three 7s with BOC at 8, McCaffrey at 6 and Evans at 7. BOC played a lot of provincial rugby in NZ at 8 and he's had a full summer off this time, unlike last year.

I think we'll be seeing quite a mix, but I suspect we'll see quite a lot of Evans at 7 with BOC and McCaffrey rotating through 7 and 8 in the AP/ERC. I expect we'll use Hamilton more as an 8 too.

If anything Fonua's departure makes our back row options seem a bit more sensible for the season. If injuries happen and have to be accommodated then maybe it makes more sense to not use up the salary cap but sign a player on a dispensation if and when required.