A new twist in the tale is that the new Pro Rugby Agreement between region and WRU introduces the right of WRU to influence (not control) who plays where so there is a remote chance they tell Scarlets they already have too many centres of "national interest" and he should go to Dragons.
They can have him, can just see his career trajectory, 2 years of mediocrity at PYS as 4/5th choice, off to D2 in France to ride pine, contract terminated halfway through, rock up at London Welsh or Ealing and vanish into obscurity. He'll then reappear in his early 30's advertising an artisinal tiling business or selling seasoned logs to wood burning folk in South Wales.
Of course he may actually achieve some of his early promise and surprise but somehow I doubt it 😁
If Gatland is sacked this idea he is capable at 22 of him being converted into credible internatiomal 10 is likely to bite the dust in the same way his Rhodri Jones can be a tight head did. Ten is not a position that is easy to move to at his age.
I would expect there to be some released from our 57 strong squad list before we see marquee signings. Our Under 18's were champions last season and came second by one bonus point this term so the Pathway is churning them out. There are 20 transitionals out in the SRC and about 8 hold O's caps but all are chasing contracts.
I half expect Boshoff and Spencer to be signed up as long term injury replacements and Beard and Luke Morgan to leave so, apart from the perennial search for tight head props we don't have many vacancies.
There are two ways you can go. Get a bigger deeper squad with less front line quality or take a gamble on depth and bring in more front line quality. The three main signings so far announced are Basham to Cardiff Lloyd to Cardiff and now looks like Hawkins to Scarlets. I am not sure I would have been interested in any of those three.
You are right in that to improve our squad quality there will have to be releases. At the moment we know Tips is gone and Beard is sadly probable. I would put Luke Morgan in the highly likely column and Owen Williams in the more likely than not. Both Stefan Thomas and Cokasinga will depend on their contract . If there are release options they are probably gone. The same may apply to Greatbanks
A new twist in the tale is that the new Pro Rugby Agreement between region and WRU introduces the right of WRU to influence (not control) who plays where so there is a remote chance they tell Scarlets they already have too many centres of "national interest" and he should go to Dragons.
Unlikely ....
They can have him, can just see his career trajectory, 2 years of mediocrity at PYS as 4/5th choice, off to D2 in France to ride pine, contract terminated halfway through, rock up at London Welsh or Ealing and vanish into obscurity. He'll then reappear in his early 30's advertising an artisinal tiling business or selling seasoned logs to wood burning folk in South Wales.
Of course he may actually achieve some of his early promise and surprise but somehow I doubt it 😁
Are we actually linked to any new signings? I know we done brilliantly retaining, but is there any big news we can expect?
Not really Ospreys related.
He has made no impact at Exeter and I doubt he would want to come back here anyway.