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Northampton forced to bring in experienced hooker as injuries pile up

Chris Boyd and Sam Vesty address the Northampton players at training (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Northampton Saints have been forced to sign a new hooker as injuries mount going into the new season.

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They’ve agreed a deal with Joe Gray as injury cover until October.

England hooker Dylan Hartley has not played since March, but was recently named in the 44-man England training squad.

Eddie Jones told RugbyPass last week that Hartley was fit to return “All the medical reports we have on him are that he’s right for full training, which is great news”.

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30-year-old Gray rejoins the club from Harlequins after eight years with the south-west London side, where he made over 150 appearances and lifted the Premiership Rugby title in 2012 – playing all 80 minutes in the final.

Nottingham-born Gray is a Saints Academy graduate, first running out in the Black, Green and Gold back in 2007 and making 20 appearances over three seasons.

During his time with Quins he also represented England Saxons before earning a full cap for the Red Rose against New Zealand in 2014.

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“We’re delighted to have secured a player of Joe’s experience and quality for the next three months,” said Saints’ director of rugby Chris Boyd.

“A number of our hookers are carrying niggles heading into the back end of preseason, and we want to make sure they are back to full fitness before they return with a long season ahead. We have three important preseason matches in the coming weeks, so it’s important to make sure we are covered.

“Joe has a proven track record in the Premiership, and I’m sure our younger hookers like Reece and Samson will also relish the opportunity to learn from someone new.”

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H
Hellhound 3 hours ago
Brett Robinson looks forward to 'monumental' year in 2025

I'm not very hopeful of a better change to the sport. Putting an Aussie in charge after they failed for two decades is just disgusting. What else will be brought in to weaken the game? What new rule changes will be made? How will the game be grown?


Nothing of value in this letter. There is no definitive drive towards something better. Just more of the same as usual. The most successful WC team is getting snubbed again and again for WC's hosting rights. What will make other competitions any different?


My beloved rugby is already a global sport. Why is there no SH team chosen between the Boks, AB's, Wallabies and Fiji? Like a B&I Lions team to tour Europe and America? A team that could face not only countries but also the B&I Lions? Wouldn't that make for a great spectacle that will also bring lots of eyeballs to the sport?


Instead with an Aussie in charge, rugby will become more like rugby league. Rugby will most likely become less global if we look at what have become of rugby in Australia. He can't save rugby in Australia, how will he improve the global footprint of rugby world wide?


I hope to be proven wrong and that he will raise up the sport to new heights, but I am very much in doubt. It's like hiring a gardener to a CEO position in a global company expecting great results. It just won't happen. Call me negative or call me whatever you'd like, Robinson is the wrong man for the job.

3 Go to comments
J
JW 3 hours ago
The Fergus Burke test and rugby's free market

The question that pops into my mind with Fergus Burke, and a few other high profile players in his boots right now, and also many from the past to be fair, is can the club scene start to take over this sentimentality of test footy being the highest level? Take for a moment a current, modern day scenario of Toulouse having a hiccup and failing to make this years Top 14 Final, we could end up seeing the strongest French side in History touring New Zealand next year. Why? Because at any one time they could make up over half the French side, but although that is largely avoided, it is very likely at the national teams detriment with the understanding these players have of playing together likely being stronger than the sum of the best players throughout France selected on marginal calls.


Would the pinnacle of the game really not be reached in the very near future by playing for a team like Toulouse? Burke might have put himself in a position where holding down a starting spot for any nation, but he could be putting himself in the hotbed of a new scene. Clearly he is a player that cherishes International footy as the highest level, and is possibly underselling himself, but really he might just be underselling these other nations he thinks he could represent.

Burke’s decision to test the waters with either England or Scotland has been thrown head-first into the spotlight by the relative lack of competition for the New Zealand 10 shirt.

This is the most illogical statement I've ever read in one of your articles Nick. Burke is behind 3 All Stars of All Black rugby, it might be a indictment of New Zealand rugby but it is abosolutely apparent (he might have even said so himself) why he decided to test the waters.

He mattered because he is the kind of first five-eighth New Zealand finds it most difficult to produce from its domestic set-up: the strategic schemer, the man who sees all the angles and all the bigger potential pictures with the detail of a single play.

Was it not one of your own articles that highlighted the recent All Black nature to select a running, direct threat, first five over the last decade? There are plenty of current players of Burke's caliber and style that simply don't fit the in vogue mode of what Dan Carter was in peoples minds, the five eight that ran at the slightest hole and started out as a second five. The interesting thing I find with that statement though is that I think he is firmly keeping his options open for a return to NZ.

A Kiwi product no longer belongs to New Zealand, and that is the way it is. Great credo or greater con it may be, but the free market is here to stay.

A very shortsighted and simplistic way to end a great article. You simply aren't going to find these circumstances in the future. The migration to New Zealand ended in 1975, and as that generation phases out, so too will the majority of these ancestry ties (in a rugby context) will end. It would be more accurate to say that Fergus Burke thought of himself as the last to be able to ride this wave, so why not jump on it? It is dying, and not just in the interests or Scottish of English fans.

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