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Post by will on Jan 19, 2023 17:37:01 GMT
You may remember that ex-Teignmouth player Joe was the captain of Exeter Chiefs when they won the Premiership and the European Championship in the space of 7 days back in 2023.
Well next season he's off to France to play for Pau, while his brother Sam is going to play for Montpellier along with the Chiefs' hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie.
I think you can forget Exeter ever winning either of those trophies again in the near future.
Very sad.
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Post by mulv on Jan 19, 2023 19:42:22 GMT
Good players move on, as we've seen at Blues time and again.
Crap ones move on to Blues. 🙄
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Post by Su on Jan 19, 2023 21:07:29 GMT
Not sad. The way of life. You got to see great players play.
As we have at Blues. Before they moved on to better clubs.
It’s the way of the world.
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Post by will on Jan 19, 2023 22:25:53 GMT
Not sad. The way of life. You got to see great players play. As we have at Blues. Before they moved on to better clubs. It’s the way of the world. Yeah, but I didn't know any of those Blues players personally. I do know Joe - whenever I bump into him in town or at Tinny rugby club he always stops for a chat. The team he's moved on to is definitely not better than Exeter - they might even get relegated this season. The problem is that English rugby has almost bankrupted itself (hence the demise of Worcester and Wasps) and French teams, even the not so good ones, can afford to pay higher wages. Given that English players playing outside of England are not allowed to play for England, Joe, Sam and Luke have basically given up on an international career once this year's World Cup is over. Sam and Luke have 20+ caps. Joe was on the brink of being called up two years ago, but then Marcus Smith came along and closed that door. So yes, it is sad that the lad I saw play for two seasons at Teignmouth won't ever play for England now, and I won't even be able to watch him when he plays for his club. Maybe he'll come back to Tinny as a player coach in ten years' time. Maybe I won't be around to see that. |
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Post by tom on Jan 20, 2023 10:05:16 GMT
Do the French clubs have more wealthy backers or are they better run, to enable them to pay higher wages...or do English clubs pay their imports more and the French do the same.
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Post by will on Jan 20, 2023 12:50:48 GMT
Do the French clubs have more wealthy backers or are they better run, to enable them to pay higher wages...or do English clubs pay their imports more and the French do the same. I'm not sure mate - could be six of one and half a dozen of the other. There certainly seems to be more cash washing around in the French league, and even with all of their imports they've still got the best national team in the world at the moment. Whereas we've lost two teams from our top league, there are rumours that there may be others, and the national team is in disarray. It looks like our game is not being run very efficiently. |
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Post by mulv on Jan 20, 2023 13:26:57 GMT
There's an enormous amount of money in rugby nationally - where's it going?
I bet the RU board don't go hungry at their dinners
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Post by will on Jan 20, 2023 15:12:38 GMT
There's an enormous amount of money in rugby nationally - where's it going? I bet the RU board don't go hungry at their dinners Well there's a lot generated by the internationals, and the Premiership generates a fair bit through its contract with BT, but a lot of the RFU's revenue does go to grass roots rugby, and the crowds at Premiership matches are on a par with football's League 1 - Exeter get around 14k on a good day. Add certain cheating bastard clubs like Saracens breaking the salary cap which encouraged clubs to pay more than they could afford, and then the pandemic, and many clubs have over-spent. Exeter have always been pretty cautious with their spending, but a lot of their players like Joe, Sam, Luke and two or three other big names all have contracts which terminate in the summer, and they've made it clear that wage rises are out of the question. Any one of those players could have a career-ending injury tomorrow, so they've got to fill their boots while they can. I still think of Joe as an 18 year old, but he's 26 now and has to make hay while the sun shines - I think he's chosen Pau a bit hastily, given that they could be relegated this season, but Sam and Luke will be OK at Montpellier, who are likely to be in the European Champions Cup again next year. |
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