LEICESTER TIGERS 2019/20 SQUAD/TRANSFERS/CONTRACT THREAD PART 3

[Knightonian]

https://twitter.com/adamjwhitty/status/ ... 6865954816

Good news about Reffell.

Adam Whitty
@adamjwhitty
Just got some clarification on this.

Club say Tommy Reffell is not out of contract, and is going nowhere.

The situation for Sam Costelow is less certain, and he is out of contract at the end of the season.

Also confirmed by his dad on Facebook - in contract and happy

That’s the kind of sources we need !!

Anyone know any relatives of other rumours

[JP14]

Singleton may want to play well for Leicester, especially as he will be playing for Borthwick and keen to impress Jones, but if he’s in contract that means Saracens holds all the bargaining chips. Personally I would sign him on a season loan, and try extend it into a proper contract afterwards.

[DingDong]

Singleton may want to play well for Leicester, especially as he will be playing for Borthwick and keen to impress Jones, but if he’s in contract that means Saracens holds all the bargaining chips. Personally I would sign him on a season loan, and try extend it into a proper contract afterwards.

Agree, the squad has to be a combination of established players and solid prospects, i'd put Singleton in the latter and give him as many opportunities as possible.

[Flash]

I wouldn't want to take someone on loan from saracens unless their contracted with saracens ended when the loan ends so would then be free to sign. The only caveat to that would be if we needed cover for a year to get someone else in a year's time.

Hopefully Zack Henry is a good signing. I think with hindsight it's been an error to have our back up for when Ford is away also being our 12, creating even more changes in the bakcs.

[strawclearer]

Jaco Taute is expected to be unavailable for up to three months and will undergo surgery on a torn bicep.

[ourla]

Jaco Taute is expected to be unavailable for up to three months and will undergo surgery on a torn bicep.

That's a bad loss.

[sapajo]

Terrible news, its baffling when Murphy said on BBCRL last night that Taute was touch and go for the Worcester game. Hope he recovers fully and swiftly.

[MurphysLaw]

[quote=sapajo post_id=737144 time=1582806329 user_id=9379]
Terrible news, its baffling when Murphy said on BBCRL last night that Taute was touch and go for the Worcester game. Hope he recovers fully and swiftly.
[/quote]

It is bad news - doubly so while Manu is away.
Murphy said he was a doubt for this game. He said that he had not broken a bone, but was waiting for the report on the scan.

[MurphysLaw]

The RFU has announced that England will play Tonga in the Autumn, which when you add in games against New Zealand, Argentina and Australia means that England players will be away from their clubs for the whole of November, and probably a week or two beforehand. (we may also lose players such as Lavanini,. Veainu and Kalafamoni for at least some of this period).

While also second guessing any changes to immigration rules, it seems to be increasingly difficult to get recruitment and player retention right.However, some clubs seem to manage to limit the impact - Exeter, Bris, Irish, Quins, Worcs, Glos? - whilst Tigers continue to struggle. Difficult decisions ahead.....

[ABClub]

The RFU has announced that England will play Tonga in the Autumn, which when you add in games against New Zealand, Argentina and Australia means that England players will be away from their clubs for the whole of November, and probably a week or two beforehand. (we may also lose players such as Lavanini,. Veainu and Kalafamoni for at least some of this period).

While also second guessing any changes to immigration rules, it seems to be increasingly difficult to get recruitment and player retention right.However, some clubs seem to manage to limit the impact - Exeter, Bris, Irish, Quins, Worcs, Glos? - whilst Tigers continue to struggle. Difficult decisions ahead.....

Simplest way to do that is using academy graduates to fill out squad depth. Tigers have largely failed to do so for a few years, hence ended up overpaying for squad depth in my opinion.

The work Tom Harrison (amongst several others of course) has done with the academy is outstanding. We need to start capitalising on that infrastructure again.

2019 Dev squad promotions - Whitcombe, Martin, Manz, Eveleigh, Ashworth, JvP, Costelow ( ), Gilliland, Browning, Steward
Potential 2020 Dev squad promotions - Noumey, Vanes, Rowntree, Illione, Muncaster, Kit Smith, Edwards, Titcombe, Potts, Lugsden, Ollie Smith v2

The vein of talent coming through is fantastic. In the backs where players can progress a bit quicker I'd hope to see all ofJvP, Browning and Steward feature next season.

Re-signings such as Smith, Lavin and Gough are important as they will cost very little in the short term but have the potential to save vital cap space in the long run. In those 3 players we have squad cover across the entire back row with differing skill sets. With Sam Eveleigh turning 20 next season and the very impressive Illione, Kit Smith and Muncaster about to leave school I hope the club take a punt on these kids rather than signing squad back rowers. At the very most a 1 year contract for Boladau, who has been good for us when he's had game time.

Hopefully backing these kids can provide the cap space to make fewer signing overall but sign more first XV quality players (Alemanno, Nadolo and Moriarty for instance...) rather than having a squad with too many second XV players in it.

[JP14]

Playing four fixtures in Autumn is nothing new?

[MurphysLaw]

[quote=JP14 post_id=737169 time=1582820512 user_id=12219]
Playing four fixtures in Autumn is nothing new?
[/quote]

Didn't say it was new; just that Tonga has been added to the original fixtures.
Although, until fairly recently I think it was three games were played.
Exacerbates Clubs problems of having a significant number of players involved in these games and training weeks (and any injuries arising).

[ABClub]

Taufua is likely to get picked for Samoa as well in the AIs.

[JP14]

Taufua is likely to get picked for Samoa as well in the AIs.

Summer Tour too!

[RagingBull]

Would rather that if it meant he wouldn't return to NZ though.