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14 names on the Cardiff leavers list, including Halaholo and Timani

Cardiff's Willis Halaholo (Photo by Ian Cook/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Cardiff have confirmed the 14-strong end-of-season leavers, a list that includes Willis Halaholo, Lopeti Timani and a host of others such as Rhys Carre, Tomos Williams Ellis Jenkins and Josh Turnbull. A statement read: “Cardiff Rugby can confirm 14 players will depart the club following the culmination of the 2023/24 season at Judgement Day.”

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Arwel Robson: The boyhood Cardiff supporter fulfilled a lifelong dream when he signed a one-year deal at the Arms Park last summer. He now departs to join Chambery in the Nationale.

Matt Aubrey: He also joined the club last summer and has made two first-team appearances, with injuries restricting his opportunities.

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Antoine Dupont is the GREATEST rugby player EVER – Leinster vs Toulouse reaction

Jim Hamilton and Bernard Jackman react to Toulouse beating Leinster in the final of the Investec Champions Cup and discuss Antoine Dupont who was named player of the match.

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Antoine Dupont is the GREATEST rugby player EVER – Leinster vs Toulouse reaction

Jim Hamilton and Bernard Jackman react to Toulouse beating Leinster in the final of the Investec Champions Cup and discuss Antoine Dupont who was named player of the match.

Max Clark: The centre joined on loan from the Dragons at the start of the season and has made four first-team appearances.

Gonzalo Bertranou: The Argentina international moved to the capital on loan from the Dragons following the injury to Tomos Williams. He suffered multiple facial fractures against the Lions earlier this month.

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Ciaran Parker: The tighthead prop has made the difficult decision to retire from professional sport to take up an opportunity in the financial industry.

Lopeti Timani: The Australia and Tonga international joined Cardiff in the summer of 2022, making the switch from French giants Toulon.

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Aled Summerhill: He is the first of five pathway products to bid farewell to the club following 10 years at the Arms Park.

Shane Lewis-Hughes: The versatile forward progressed right through the club’s pathway. He will join the Dragons in the summer.

Owen Lane: The fans’ favourite will make the move to France this summer, joining Valance Romans.

Tomos Williams: The Wales scrum-half leaves the club following 10 years to join Gloucester in the English Premiership. He has been sidelined since suffering an ankle injury while on Six Nations duty earlier this year.

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Willis Halaholo: He was set to depart the club last summer but agreed on a short-term deal, which was extended for the season. That allowed him to reach and surpass 100 appearances. He is set to return to New Zealand next month.

Rhys Carre: The giant loosehead will rejoin Saracens this summer after adding a further four seasons to his time with the club.

Ellis Jenkins: A long-serving captain of the club, he has decided to hang up his boots following 11 years at the top of the game. The openside flanker battled to keep his career alive following a serious knee injury, suffered while captaining Wales to victory over South Africa.

Josh Turnbull: He retired from the game with immediate effect in March, having captained the club in recent seasons. He will now move into coaching with a role within the club’s pathway and academy system while assisting Cardiff RFC.

Head coach Matt Sherratt said: “It is always a difficult time of year when any player departs, whether they have been here for a year or 10 years, and we thank them for all of their efforts.

“All 14 of these players have given their absolute all for the club during their time here and can look back on their time at Cardiff Arms Park with enormous pride.

“Six of the boys are products of a fantastic pathway and have been involved with the club since they were 15/16-years-old, they have dedicated so much of their life to Cardiff. The likes of Willis and JT have also established themselves as adopted Cardiffians and will go down as among our greatest signings.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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