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British and Irish Lions prop to join London Irish

Allan Dell of Scotland (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

London Irish’s rebuild ahead of their potential re-entry into the Premiership took a step forward this week as they secured the services of yet another international forward.

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RugbyPass revealed last weekend that Irish had secured the services of Steve Mafi from Castres. The Tongan forward is set to earn in the region of £500,000 per annum as the Exiles reap the benefits of their share in the CVC investment windfall.

RugbyPass now understands that Scotland prop Allan Dell has agreed to join the club, adding to their firepower ahead of a forecast bounce back into England’s top flight.

Capped 13 times by Scotland, the loosehead prop hails from South Africa and represented their U20s four times in 2012. The loosehead is currently ranked 11th in his position in the Six Nations by the RugbyPass Index, and 41st in the world with a score of 73.

Educated at Queens College in Eastern Cape, Dell can play on both sides of the scrum. He has made 13 senior appearances in the Vodacom and Currie Cup competitions alongside his selection for South Africa Schools and every South Africa age-grade en route to lifting the Junior World Championship trophy in 2012.

He qualified for Scotland through his grandmother, Joan Carmichael, who was born in Paisley and brought up in Edinburgh. Since making his club debut in 2014, he has made 51 appearances for Edinburgh, including last night’s triumph over Toulon, where he came off the bench.

Dell came through an injury-stricken 2017/18 where he spent much of his time rehabbing but did enough in the latter part of the campaign to ensure a place in Gregor Townsend’s Scotland Squad for the 2018 Summer Tour to Canada, USA and Argentina.

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The 26-year-old was also called up to the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand as cover for the two final games against the provinces. He made one substitute appearance, becoming Lion number #834.

London Irish plan to move back to London next season with a groundshare at Brentford FC.

This week the club announced new deals for Jacob Atkins, Rory Brand, Isaac Curtis-Harris, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Ben Loader, Tom Parton and Matt Williams.

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G
GrahamVF 1 hour ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

"has SA actually EVER helped to develop another union to maturity like NZ has with Japan," yes - Argentina. You obviously don't know the history of Argentinian rugby. SA were touring there on long development tours in the 1950's

We continued the Junior Bok tours to the Argentine through to the early 70's

My coach at Grey High was Giepie Wentzel who toured Argentine as a fly half. He told me about how every Argentinian rugby club has pictures of Van Heerden and Danie Craven on prominent display. Yes we have developed a nation far more than NZ has done for Japan. And BTW Sa players were playing and coaching in Japan long before the Kiwis arrived. Fourie du Preez and many others were playing there 15 years ago.


"Isaac Van Heerden's reputation as an innovative coach had spread to Argentina, and he was invited to Buenos Aires to help the Pumas prepare for their first visit to South Africa in 1965.[1][2] Despite Argentina faring badly in this tour,[2] it was the start of a long and happy relationship between Van Heerden and the Pumas. Izak van Heerden took leave from his teaching post in Durban, relocated to Argentina, learnt fluent Spanish, and would revolutionise Argentine play in the late 1960s, laying the way open for great players such as Hugo Porta.[1][2] Van Heerden virtually invented the "tight loose" form of play, an area in which the Argentines would come to excel, and which would become a hallmark of their playing style. The Pumas repaid the initial debt, by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park, and emerged as one of the better modern rugby nations, thanks largely to the talents of this Durban schoolmaster.[1]"


After the promise made by Junior Springbok manager JF Louw at the end of a 12-game tour to Argentina in 1959 – ‘I will do everything to ensure we invite you to tour our country’ – there were concerns about the strength of Argentinian rugby. South African Rugby Board president Danie Craven sent coach Izak van Heerden to help the Pumas prepare and they repaid the favour by beating the Junior Springboks at Ellis Park.

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