Attwood - off to Bath?

By Cherry Picker
February 2 2011

Remember club rugby?  It’s a game Gloucester and a few others play while we watch, coaches fret and owners quietly worry - provided we can all find the time amid international matches and contract negotiations. With the Six Nations starting this weekend and players galore sorting out their long-term futures, it’s possibly all too easy to forget that Glaws have a game.

It’s against London Irish at Kingsholm in the LV=Cup, with the highly unusual kick-off time at 3pm on Saturday. A win for the cherry and whites would take them into the last four of the competition and set them up nicely for the following weekend’s return to Premiership rugby away to Wasps.
They need to play a lot better than they did in their Premiership defeat away to Irish in September, when they were outplayed up front.
Pack coach Carl Hogg told the Citizen: "I think the pack is progressing well, we've still got some big tests in Northampton and Leicester to come, so we'll see what we're about when we come up against them.
"The acid test I think everyone can see at the moment is Northampton and Leicester, so we'll see where we are when we take on those guys.
"It's good to get Jim Hamilton back in the mix because we've missed him, especially with Dave Attwood suspended.
"That was his first 60 minutes for eight or nine weeks (at Leeds last week) so it's good to get him back in the frame.”
But it look as if Attwood is off – he is expected to accept a  big-money offer to switch to Bath at the end of the season and coach Bryan Redpath, already looked for a tight-head prop to replace Saints-bound Paul Doran-Jones, now also has to replace Attwood. Glaws did increase their offer to him, but were unwilling to match what Bath are prepared to pay.
Rugby depends less on individual stars than footy does, so surely the club has made the right decision not to splash the cash on a forward in the same way as Chelsea have on Torres. Fortunately club rugby has not reached that level yet – but there are signs that it just might if it allowed to.
The good news is that scrum-half Dave Lewis has joined the growing list of players who have decided to stay at Kingsholm by signing a new contract.
Glaws played well at Leeds last weekend and there are signs thins are coming together nicely as we move into the second half of the Premiership season – but as Hogg says, while bating Irish this weekend is the first task, the real tests will come later.

So much going on - don't forget the match, Glaws

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 02/02/2011 11:26

Shedloads
02/02/2011 11:26

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