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Catrakilis has to fill big boots at Harlequins

Nick Evans breaks away for Quins v Wasps

Demetri Catrakilis is relishing the daunting job of replacing All Black Nick Evans as the Harlequins play-maker and main points scorer with the boot in next season’s English Premiership campaign.

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The 27-year-old South African born No10 has joined Quins from Montpellier and is already in training with a squad that will be captained by former Wallaby skipper James Horwill and will feature current Lions stars Kyle Sinckler and Joe Marler along with former England captain Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown, Danny Care and Marland Yarde along with Wales’s Jamie Roberts and Scotland’s Tim Visser.

Catrakilis  said: “I like to try and run the game which comes with decision making and that is sometimes with the boot. When you’ve got to make those decisions all your skills have to be up there. I’ve been working hard on my running game the last few years as well as my kicking game so I’d like to think I’m a well-rounded player.

“I’ve got to meet the boys and it’s almost been like my first day at school, with a lot of new names and a new place to get used to. The facilities are great and I’m really looking forward to it.

“I’ve been watching Quins play since I was a teenager, obviously it’s a really great club and historically it’s one of the best. As a young kid growing up, if you want to come to Europe Harlequins is probably one of the clubs you want to come to.”

Evans won 16 All Blacks caps and scored a record 2,249 points for Quins where he is now part of the coaching set up.

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J
JW 5 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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