JSD - staying

By Cherry Picker
January 31 2011

There was a mixture of good news and bad news for Gloucester over the weekend – and it’s difficult to decide which outweighs the other. On the theory that a glass should always be half full rather than half empty, though, LV= Cup victory over Leeds and the news that James Simpson-Daniel has committed his future to the club aren’t bad to be going on with.

The bad news, though, is that Paul Doran-Jones has become the first high-profile players to announce that he is leaving Kingsholm in the end-of-season merry-go-round, and Sinbad’s two-try form playing for England Saxons suggests he could well be missing a few Glaws games during the internationals.
He has turned down approaches from two French clubs to stay at his one and only professional club and has signed a new three-year Kingsholm contract after deciding that a life abroad is not for him.
He wants to play for England and has decided his best chance of doing so again lie with him playing his club rugby here.
It’s great news for the club and for coach Bryan Redpath, though that was tempered somewhat by the later news that Paul Doran-Jones has accepted an offer to switch to Northampton, while there are fears that his fellow forward Dave Attwood could follow him out of the Kingsholm revolving door by accepting a big-money offer from Bath.
With so much going on behind the scenes, it’s often difficult to keep an eye on what’s going on in the game itself, and it must be a massive distraction for the game’s coaches when all this wheeling and dealing is going on in mid-season.
The way rugby’s playing contracts are dealt with makes football’s transfer window look neat and tidy and it surely must be time for the game’s authorities to find a better way than this. Doran-Jones’s decision to leave Glaws must be respected, of course, but that fact that he remains with Glaws until the end of the season is hardly good for team morale.
Meanwhile, on the pitch Sunday’s 30-16 win at Leeds means Glaws are one game away from the last four of the LV= Cup, the decider coming at home to London Irish next weekend.
Lesley Vainikolo and Tom Voyce scored the tries that put Glaws on the road to victory, and as Leeds threatened a comeback, Nick Wood and Tim Molenaar went over to make sure.
It was an assured performance, but injuries to the likes of Vainikolo will have put paid to any over-the-top celebrations.

Sinbad signs, Glaws win - but it's not all good news

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 31/01/2011 15:13

Shedloads
31/01/2011 15:13

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