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Coventry are the beneficiaries following Ford-Robinson's tighthead shake-up at Gloucester

Gloucester's Gareth Denman, here sliding through the mud to score for Northampton in 2014, has been snapped up by Coventry (Photo by Christopher Lee/Getty Images)

Ambitious Championship outfit Coventry have moved quickly to snap up Gareth Denman, the Premiership-winning prop no longer wanted by Gloucester following their recent signing of the versatile Jamal Ford-Robinson from Northampton.

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The 28-year-old tighthead has played 22 times in two years at the Cherry & Whites but has struggled with injuries this season, limiting him to just three first-team appearances as a replacement. He has also been playing on loan Hartpury, helping in their battle against relegation in the Championship.

The Rotherham-born forward came to Kingsholm in 2017 from Northampton. During his four-year stint at Franklin’s Gardens, he was involved in Saints’ Premiership and European Challenge Cup double-winning season in 2013/14 and then appeared for England against the Barbarians 12 months later.

His early career was spent in Yorkshire, initially with Carnegie, where he emerged from the academy to make his Premiership debut in 2010/11, and then at Rotherham. In total Denman has almost 150 senior appearances to his name.

The experienced prop joins fellow front row Gerard Ellis, centre Will Owen, back rowers Shane Nayalo and Ryan Burrows plus out-half Rory Jennings on the list of new recruits Coventry have to date confirmed for next season. 

Lock James Voss, who is currently dual-registered with Leicester, will also be a full-time member of the Blue-and-White squad from June.

Director of rugby Rowland Winter said: “We are delighted to be welcoming Gareth to Coventry, he will add further quality and experience to the pack as we look to make further improvement. At 28 he is approaching his prime as prop and will add serious competition to the tight head shirt for next season.”

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Denman said: “I’m really looking forward to joining Coventry; I was impressed with the ambition and plans that the club have and I can’t wait to play my part and get started in the summer.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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