Another new signing?

[TomR96]

Properly another new signing for Tigers with another back-rower, Wessel Jooste who Richard Cockerill has took on trial and is loooking for cover for Craig Newby and Tom Croft. Why? This is when the coaching need to trust players from the academy to step up for a few games and give them a load of confidence. Tigers have a great academy set up and have brought in the likes of Tom Croft, Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, and by using the academy at a young age they can gain valuable experience.

http://www.espnscrum.com/premiership-20 ... 68568.html

[sam16111986]

To be fair we don't have a bountiful amount of academy graduate backrowers kicking about. Pienaar went to Mosely, Armes went to Bedford, Doyle got poached by Sale and Watson went to join the Scotland 7s team and Glasgow full time last summer at the same time Hemmingway joined Leeds.

Our backrow options are:

6.Croft, Mafi, Thorpe
7.Salvi, Newby, Woods
8.Crane, Waldrom, Deacon, de Carpienter

Of that lot Croft is missing the start of the season and both he and Waldrom will be away during the AIs. Newby has had knee surgery and Woods is still struggling with a wrist injury. Sod knows where de Carpienter is after a rumoured nasty injury last season.

Even so I have to agree with you, why sign a 31 year old versatile back 5 forward? We have other options and the only time we should be desperately short will be the LV Cup games during the AIs and since when do we care about those? Send out the young guns for the LV, the likes of Mafi, Croft and Slater can all interchange between backrow and lock (Crane has done for the Saxons as well) if we need them to in the league.

[Daveyboy]

To be fair, as supporters, we have no idea of the chronicity of the injuries to Newby and Croft. Who can guarantee when they will come back? Jordan Crane has been out for over a year and has only just played 50 minutes against lower tier opposition.

I suspect that there are genuine gaps in the squad which Richard Cockerill is trying to plug.

[sam16111986]

True Davey, Cockers is being cautious and with good reason. Need to make sure that the injured guys have all the time they need to get right. Not sure we need another 30 something backrower though. Deacon is in his 30s, Thorpe is in his late 20s. If we were bringing in another backrow cover option I'd prefer we looked at younger players again. Cockers has done good things in the transfer market when signing young players like Mafi and Slater, I'd rather take a gamble on someone like that if they are only going to play in emergencies rather than a 31 year old SH player who is really just looking to top up his pension before going home.

Then again I didn't see the friendly against Jersey, did this guy put down a marker and really offer something?

[PM76]

I too would rather see this gap filled by a younger, Mafiesque, signing who could really thrive or an academy lad. But this signing could link to the injuries to Slater and Deacon mentioned in the Merc, Deacon is supposedly missing the first couple of weeks but no mention is made of Ed's injury.

If Cockers is seriously intending to compete, on 2 fronts then this sort of signing is probably needed. Clermont, Toulouse etc. are full of options like this and it enables them to rest players like Bonnaire etc. for the big games. For example for the game away at Sale a week before the trip to Toulouse what is stopping Cockers naming a side of:

Stanko Hawkins Brookes
Andrew Slater
Jooste Deacon Thorpe

Young Cornwell
Forsyth Smith
Lewington Morris Hamilton

That way there can be no complaints of fatigue/ tiredness before 2 games where 5 points are definately required to get out of the group. It may not be popular with some but IMO Cockers could do this and still secure a top 2 league finish.

[Jeremy Anderson]

The problem is that some of our players need regular game time to perform at their best. I believe the forced rest before the Prem final is the reason some of our players have nor performed at their best in the finals.
A few weeks rest is clearly good during the season but then I think a few games are needed to return to optimum level.

[4071]

To be fair we don't have a bountiful amount of academy graduate backrowers kicking about.

And why do you suppose that is...?

When the response to any injury is to sign more players from outside the club rather than give Academy players any game time at all, then obviously we're not going to have many acaemy graduates kicking about.

Tom Armes could do nothing more to earn game time, but he's been released. And instead we sign players from outside.

This reminds me of the signing of Pieter Myburgh. Experienced South African openside brought in as injury cover. Played 2 LV Cup matches before being released. All he did was prevent ENG U20 openside Matt Everard from getting game time (Everard even ended up having to play at 6 for the A side, when he's an out-and-out 7). End result? Myburgh got released and Everard left. Back to square one, and needing to recruit again.

It would be nice to see a bit more faith put in the players who have come through the system at Tigers. Not the one or two outstanding players - the likes of Youngs, Manu and Ford - but also the good ones who could easily become long-term squad members; the likes of Armes, Everard, Green, Harris, Bower, Stevens, Forsyth and Lewington.

I thought Cockerill had learned his lesson with Harrison, having done everything possible to avoid giving him game time. When absolutely forced by circumstance to pick him, it turned out our talented ENG U20 scrum-half could actually play a bit. I think a few more of our talented Academy players would be happy to show Cockerill that they can step up, too.

Promoting from within has certainly worked for Quins...

[bwightman]

Having said that, now Deacon Snr. is out of action we could use some experienced cover at lock. Slater's out too, so that only leaves us with Mafi and Rob Andrew behind Parling and Kitchener.

[FrontRowUnionMember]

With Salvi our only fit natural seven, I'd have rather have seen us pick up an out and out openside. Croft, Mafi are 6's, Deacon and Thorpe 6/8, Crane and Waldrom 8's. Newby is quality in all 3 positions, Woods is a 7, but both appear long term injured, so if anything happens to Salvi we are going to be hugely stretched. Salvi has played elsewhere, so not an issue that another 7 would not get gametime.

[norfolkexpat]

What every Tigers supporter EXPECTS is Tigers to attempt to target the Heineken Cup..

However what stands out a country mile is that our esteemed Club Coach and the twin Petes dont---judging from the purchases gained since last season.
And the loss of Agulla

So whether another short term journeyman will make a scrap of difference is -IMHO- immaterial...

And we are the best supported Club in Europe, excepting Toulouse.....

[tigerburnie]

and Leinster..............and Munster...and

[CitizenSmiff]

Let's not forget Salvi and Mafi both arrived as temporary injury cover and they're two of our most valuable players now.

[Crumblies]

and Leinster..............and Munster...and

Nope we are the BEST supported club in Europe above Leinster, Munster and Toulouse. At least we were in 2010/2011:
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/i ... 0aRCRD.htm

So IMHO Norfollexpats comment is a valid one .

[tigerburnie]

Valid if a little out of date perhaps, I'm sure there's plenty of clubs supporters who would disagree too....

Back to the thread, why not see what the player brings before writing him off without having put a shirt on yet. We as a club have done well bringing players on in the past,playing for us an ambition that a lot of players have and I'm sure wouldn't waste the opportunity.

[sam16111986]

Back to the thread, why not see what the player brings before writing him off without having put a shirt on yet. We as a club have done well bringing players on in the past,playing for us an ambition that a lot of players have and I'm sure wouldn't waste the opportunity.

I don't think anyone is doubting his ability it's that he is a very short term answer to what is a long term problem. Parling is in his late 20s and has had two career threatening injuries, Louis is in his early 30s and has had a string of injury lay offs. We need long term replacements for the pair of them. They have capable understudys in Slater and Kitchener but ideally we need another wave of locks starting to progress so as Slater and Kitchener pass the mid point of their 20s we have some locks in their early 20s as capable understudys.

This Joost fellow seems a perfectly good back up player, but he is already 31 and will be at the club for probably 2 seasons, maximum. He is unlikely to be starting any important games and will be squad back up. Couldn't we risk an academy lock or two in that role? Cain and Wells both played alright against Jersey (from what I was told), Price is an England under 20 lock and gained experienced at Clermont last season. We need to get these guys coming through and generate our own strenght in depth otherwise they won't make it and leave and we'll be left searching for external replacements who then have to learn the Tigers ethos and will probably want more cash.