By Duncan Wood
July 17 2002

It seems that all the departures have taken place and the arrivals have all been announced bar one - the 'phenomenal' signing rumoured to be a Kiwi centre. So, how is the Bristol Shoguns squad for 2002-3 shaping up?

Position	Candidates
Full Back	Lee Best, Matt Carrington, Jamie Williams
Wing	Phil Christophers, Brendon Daniel, Luke Nabaro, David Rees, Jamie Williams
Centre	Phil Christophers, Felipe Contepomi, Duncan Heyward, Andrew Higgins, Miles Johnston, Luke Nabaro, AN Other, David Rees, Martin Shaw, Jamie Williams
Fly Half	Felipe Contepomi, Shane Drahm
Scrum Half	Paul Hodgson, Agustin Pichot, Peter Richards
Prop	Emiliano Bergamaschi, Darren Crompton, Paul Johnstone, Tim Payne, Richard Skuse, Julian White
Hooker	Neil McCarthy, Saul Nelson, Chris Rowland
Second Row	Garath Archer, Alex Brown, Scott Morgan, Andrew Sheridan, Ben Sturnham
Flanker	Mike Lipman, Chris Morgan, Rhys Oakley, Matt Salter, Andrew Sheridan, Craig Short
Number Eight	Ross Beattie, Ben Sturnham

So, by my reckoning, that's 37 players which is a fairly sizeable squad. Leeds for example are talking of making do with a squad of 30 players.

Admittedly, some of those players may not see too much first team action immediately - for example, Richard Skuse and Duncan Heyward. But they are part of the setup.

It's also taking into the account the 'phenomenal' new signing promised by Malcolm Pearce a few weeks ago and I've assumed that he'll be a centre which is what the rest of the media are doing. Peter Thorburn confirmed last week that he is still hoping ot bring one more player into the squad.

All in all, it's a pretty strong looking squad. Each and every one of these players is capable of doing a job at first team level although we're obviously unsure about just how good some of the younger players are and could be in the future.

There is also strength in depth at all the positions. In fact, one of Peter Thorburn's challenges is going to be selecting a starting XV as there are plenty of candidates at all the positions. It's a nice problem to have!