By John Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph
January 3 2010

RUGBY director Phil Maynard has hit out at Leicester’s decision to transfer winger Will Hurrell’s loan registration from Coventry to Championship rivals Doncaster before tomorrow’s clash with the South Yorkshire side at the Butts Park Arena (3pm). The England Under-20 cap played nine games for Cov, scoring three tries, before the club was plunged into administration at the start of last month but is now set to face his former team-mates for his first start in Doncaster colours.

Maynard is singularly unimpressed by Leicester’s attitude towards Cov’s plight – in stark contrast to fellow Premiership club Worcester – and the way they have handled the Hurrell issue.

“The first I knew of anything was when Will didn’t come to training,” said Maynard. “He told me Leicester weren’t letting him, and then Doncaster got in touch wanting his registration from us.

“I have to say the way Leicester have behaved has been poor – it’s not difficult to pick up the phone these days, yet we didn’t have contact from anyone at Leicester until Tuesday this week and then only by answer phone.

“At best it is discourteous and I don’t think it reflects well on a club like Leicester.

“The first thing Mike Ruddock did when he knew we were in trouble was call me to say that if there was anything Worcester could do, they would. His attitude was they would give us all the help they could, which is the way it should be in this game.”

Maynard added that the club had tried to contact Leicester’s head coach Richard Cockerill, who played his first senior rugby at Cov between 1990 and 1992 before moving on to Tigers, but so far had not had any response.

Cov make two changes to their starting line-up after their narrow defeat at Moseley on Boxing Day. Winger Romain Plantey returns from injury and Worcester loanee Ollie Grove is back from Scotland Under-20 duty at full-back.

Ben Russell is also back from injury on the replacements bench along with Phil Mackenzie, who has returned from a trip home to Canada.

Cov came away from Doncaster with a hard-earned 17-14 win in October in a game which, although their sixth straight defeat, proved a turning point for the home side who have since won six out of eight to climb out of the bottom four in the table.

Maynard is hoping that tomorrow’s game will provide a similar spark for his squad, who have shown outstanding spirit and commitment over the last four games without any real reward.

“We need a win both on and off the park,” he said. “But the mood has been upbeat since Moseley and the boys have trained well.

“We’ve just got to show a bit of inventiveness and learn to convert pressure into points which is all that was lacking on Boxing Day.

“A win might prove to be another pivotal point and set us on our way.”

Coventry: Grove; Plantey, Apikotoa, C Lewis, J Lewis; Thomas, Walls; Dugard, McMillan, Hall, McGowan, Herrington, Venter, Bignell, Carpenter. Reps: Russell, Johnson, Mackenzie, Maddocks, Dwyer, Brenton, Askew.

Phil Maynard angry with Leicester over loan switch

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 03/01/2010 14:09

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
03/01/2010 14:09

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Laugh Out Loud (Dave Roach)
03/01/2010 14:15

Sorry for the delay in posting this article, but I thought the information about Will H was too important to miss.

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RJC
03/01/2010 14:22

Thats what happens when you rely on loan players. They can be recalled at a moments notice and there is nothing we can do about it.It stinks and I think there should things in place to stop the likes of Leicester taking back thier players and then loaning them to the team that is playing us next. That is morally wrong.

COME ON COV

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30yearblue
03/01/2010 14:43

Is this kind of thing the RFU want clubs like ours us to aspire to then?

Courtesy of the best union league in the world too.........

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Sweetie
03/01/2010 15:21

Recalling a loan player to play for his home club is one thing, changing where he is loaned out to mid-season is just wrong.

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Roger Fox
03/01/2010 15:58

You really shouldn't expect anything else from Leicester and their kind. Remember Back and his tantrums last season. It is to be expected that a loan player is called back to his club, but to withdraw a player and immediately move him to the next Cov opposition seems to be rather spiteful and petty. Obviously Cockerill feels no loyalty to his home city. But this is the new era of "professional" rugby and one can expect this kind of antics. Cockerill doesn't even feel the need to explain or apologise, or perhaps he hasn't got the guts to talk to Maynard.

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FCP
03/01/2010 16:05

I agree with mosts of the posts above, but its a bit rich of Mr Maynard moaning about the way he has been treated given the way he has treated some of his players, past and present. Respect has to be earned Phil.

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RJC
03/01/2010 16:24

ARRR, you said something against Maynard, that will get you banned you know.lol

I wonder if the thinking behind Leicester is they dont want thier players playing for a club that has gone bust twice in 18 months, a club where the advisors hoensty has been questioned and a club that has to rattle tins to get enough money to pay players wages. I know if I was a boss of a club like Leicester I wouldnt want to have any association with it. Its a thought anyway.

COME ON COV

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30yearblue
03/01/2010 16:30

Perhaps Mike Ruddock could tell you the answer to that one.

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harleygaz
03/01/2010 16:30

I agree rjc he,ll be looked after a lot better up there

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RJC
03/01/2010 16:35

Might be able to ask him that next season when they drop into our league. Thats assuming we are still around then and we manage to win the playoff games.

COME ON COV

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Kimbo
03/01/2010 16:37

Spot on Roger Fox (imho) (apart from the bit about Cov being the Gobsh*te's home city... but that's neither here nor there).

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harleygaz
03/01/2010 17:52

cov isn,t his home city , he played for newbold rfc and that,s rugby

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Sweetie
03/01/2010 18:05

By home, I meant home club at the moment being Leicester. Sorry if you took it the wrong way.

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Egg Timer
03/01/2010 19:02

While I can understand the furstration, at the end of the day he's a loan player and Leicester (clearly) want him to be getting game time. With Cov's future in the balance, I don't think Tigers can be blamed for moving him.

I might question the method, but not the motive.

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Kimbo
03/01/2010 19:03

Leamington Hastings (Hill Primary school).

Irrelevant I know, but hey ho.

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Roger Fox
04/01/2010 15:30

Thanks Kimbo. It actually makes me feel a bit better that he is not a Coventrian.

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Kimbo
04/01/2010 17:16

The irony is, his brother John's a really nice guy.

(ex amateur player, employed in the building industry vs an ex pro player employed by a bunch of shysters. Is that indicative perhaps?).

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covkid53
04/01/2010 19:58

I understand Phil's annoyance, but these days there is no loyalty from players in any pro sport, rightly or wrongly its a short career and they chase the money.

Crocodile tears wont help Phil, he should think about the next time he wants a loan player from Leicester, they may not now want to help.

We were in a pickle at the time he left for the Dons so I wasn't suprised.

The player concerned was equally as bad as his club, lets leave it there.

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RJC
04/01/2010 20:08

I would guess the player probably had no say in the matter. He works for Leicester and if they go to Doncaster then he go's.
Its not the first time Leicester has pulled a player from us like this and I guess it wont be the last.

COME ON COV

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covkid53
04/01/2010 20:10

RJC....can't argue there.

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