Miall, 6'4" and 16st, played alongside Quins' Luke Sherriff in last year's Varsity match and will be expected to start at second row for Quins, where he will have to step into the awfully big boots left by Garrick Morgan, released at the end of last season. 

Miall had a successful season last year for the dark blues, including a notable victory away to Treviso - a feat that eluded Quins home and away three seasons ago - and a hard fought defeat by tourists Australia (in both games Miall being man-of-the-match) as well as the victory over Cambridge at HQ. He also played last season at Henley Hawks - mainly it seems at 6 - and prior to that at Maidenhead. He's also had a taste of international glamour as well being selected as part of an inexperienced England squad in the 2001 Hong Kong Sevens. A great catch for Quins, a club now committed to investing for the future.

If Miall represents youth in the pack - alongside an impressive range of academy players - our other recent signing (announced last month) tight prop and rumoured Dean Martin fan, Laurent Gomez, 31, represents experience. He joins after just one season with French side Montferrand, having previously played for Grenoble and Bourgoin.  The whisper I hear from the club, is that that last season the pack were faulted for their performance in the the set scrums, a weakness that was blamed for leaving us on the back foot from the start of every phase ('roller skates' is the phrase I recall from somewhere).

This year Kingston will be looking to Gomez, a secure player rather than a star (he hasn't been capped) to fix this problem from the front. Gomez enjoys a reputation as a firm and solid tight scrummager, and non-nonsense player in the loose.  Certainly a front row of Wood, Leonard and Gomez sounds plausible enough to me.

So, an interesting pair of signings. Do they add up to an improvement over Olver and Morgan?  Well, I was an Olver fan last season, and sorry to see him go.  I was also a Morgan fan for that matter, so perhaps that's why I feel impelled to conclude non-commitally - let's see how they get on.   I imagine they add up to less money than Olver and Morgan (an important consideration) so if they can match them, we're on top already.  But I honestly see no reason at all why they shouldn't surpass them. 

Laurent, Simon: Bienvenu et Bon Chance! 

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon