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Joe Batley becomes the latest Worcester player to find a new club

(Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Joe Batley has become the latest Worcester player to find alternative employment, the forward finding a new club just a day after he became a free agent after his Warriors contract was terminated at an insolvency court. Club captain Ted Hill, Ollie Lawrence, Fergus Lee-Warner and Valeriy Morozov had already joined Bath on loan on Monday, and the exodus continued on Wednesday with Duhan van der Merwe re-joining his old club Edinburgh within hours of the liquidation of WRFC Players Ltd, the subsidiary company that held all player and some staff contracts.

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Similar to van der Merwe, Batley will also be retracing his old steps as he has been snapped up by Pat Lam’s Bristol, who had a vacancy to fill following the long-term injury picked up last month by lock Sam Jeffries. Batley made appearances for Bristol across three seasons before moving on to Worcester for the post-lockdown restart of the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership season.

He tweeted: “I’m extremely grateful to Bristol Bears for picking me up. I’m excited to be back in bear country and the challenges that come with it. I feel extremely lucky to continue to fulfil my dreams and aspirations of a professional rugby player. As well as providing for my family.”

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A club statement read: “Versatile forward Joe Batley has re-joined Bristol Bears with immediate effect. The 26-year-old, who can play in the second row and back row, returns to Ashton Gate after leaving Worcester Warriors.”

Director of rugby Lam added: “It’s been a challenging time for Joe and his family, but we are pleased to be able to bring him back into a club and system he knows and enjoys. He has grown and developed massively during his time in Worcester, and I know he will add real value to our team going forward.”

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It was during his previous spell at Bristol that Batley was diagnosed with cancer in February 2018, an experience he spoke about at length last April to RugbyPass. “We won the Championship and I was like, ‘Okay, I want to kick on again and play in the Prem, that is my dream’. To get cancer then kind of put a whole new twist on everything where rugby was my passion, it was what I loved to do but it wasn’t my everything. It became more about family, about what I wanted to do.

“Luckily I was then able to play Premiership with Bristol and had a small stint with Leicester before getting the shot here at Worcester. I am just finding that I’m enjoying my rugby a lot more now because I have taken the pressure off performing.”

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AM 7 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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