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Northampton Saints ward off potential transfer raid by Beziers with flood of contract renewals

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Northampton Saints announced today that a further 19 first-team players have committed their futures to the Club by signing contract extensions.

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Seven internationals are amongst those to pen new deals, with England’s Courtney Lawes, Lewis Ludlam, Teimana Harrison, Piers Francis and George Furbank joining Wales fly-half Dan Biggar and Scotland centre Rory Hutchinson in agreeing terms to stay at Franklin’s Gardens.

Earlier in the week, rumours circulated that club stars Courtney Lawes and Dan Biggar were in the crosshairs of Beziers, a Pro D2 club in France that is set to be bought by new billionaire owners.

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    Warren Gatland | Lockdown

    Alex Mitchell, Alex Moon and Fraser Dingwall – three Saints Academy graduates who all received their first England squad call-up during this year’s Six Nations – have all also put pen to paper on contract extensions.

    Meanwhile, the likes of Club co-captain Alex Waller, Mikey Haywood, David Ribbans, James Grayson, Ehren Painter, James Fish, and Lewis Bean have all also been rewarded for a string of impressive performances in Black, Green and Gold this term, plus Alex Coles and Samson Ma’asi move from Northampton’s Academy set-up into their first senior contracts.

    The 19 players announced today follow a further nine Saints (Henry Taylor, Karl Garside, Harry Mallinder, Tom Collins, Paul Hill, Ahsee Tuala, Api Ratuniyarawa, Connor Tupai, and Ollie Sleightholme) who have also committed their future to the Club in 2020.

    “Getting so many influential players bought in to what we’re trying to achieve, and committed to staying with us for an additional two or three years, is a huge coup for Saints,” said Director of Rugby, Chris Boyd.

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    “The connection and co-operation of our players to back the Club long-term has been great to see.

    “We firmly believe we have the players in place already at Franklin’s Gardens to compete at the very highest level of English and European rugby, and to challenge for every trophy available to us.

    “We have a great balance of emerging and world-class players at our disposal, with a home-grown spine to the team, so it was vital for us to keep this exciting group together and build the core of our side.

    “Moreover, 17 of these 19 players are English qualified; part of our responsibility is to produce players capable of representing England and we are confident we can continue to do that within this group and throughout the rest of the squad in the coming years.

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    “The entire squad and staff deserve huge credit for how they have handled the situation caused by the pandemic over the last few months. There’s been a massive amount of effort put in behind the scenes to make sure everyone remains together, and now we’re training again you can see how hungry our players are to rip in to matches when it is safe to do so.”

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    Eliza Galloway 52 minutes ago
    Geoff Parling: An Englishman roasting the Lions?

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    44 Go to comments
    J
    JW 1 hour ago
    James O'Connor, the Lions and the great club v country conundrum

    Lol you need to shoot your editor for that headline, even I near skipped the article.


    France simply need to go to a league format for the Brennus, that will shave two weekends of pointless knockout rugby from their season and raise the competitions standards and mystique no end.


    The under age loophole is also a easy door to shut, just remove the lower age limit. WR simply never envisioned a day were teams would target people under the age of 17 or whatever it is now, but much like with Rassie and his use of subs bench, that day was obviously always going to come. I can’t remember how football does it, I think it’s the other way around with them, you can’t sign anyone younger than that but unions can’t stop 17 or 18 yo’s from leaving for a pro club if they want to. There is a transaction that takes place of a few hundred thousand for a normal average player. I’d prefer rugby to be stricter and just keep the union bodies signoff being required.


    What really was their problem with Kite and co leaving though? Do we really need a game dominated by Internationals? I even think WR’s proposed calendar might be a bit too much, with at minimum 12 top tier games being played in the World Championship. I think 10 to 12, maybe any one player playing 10 of those 12 is the best way to think of it, for every international team is max, so that they can allow their domestic comps to shine if they want, and other nations like Japan and Fiji can, even some of the home nations maybe, and fill out their calendar with extra tours if they like them as a way to make money. As it is RA don’t have as good a pathway system, so they could simply buy back those players if they turn good. Are they worried they’ll be less likely to? We wait for baited breath for the new season to be laid out in front of us by WR.

    It could impose sanctions on the Fédération Française de Rugby, but the body which runs the Top 14 and the ProD2, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is entirely independent.

    It’s not independent at all. The LNR is a body under, and commissioned by, the FFR (and Government control) to mediate the clubs. FFR can simply install a new club competition if they don’t listen, then you’d see whether the players want to stay at any club who doesn’t tow the line and move to the new competition, as they obviously wouldn’t fall under the auspice of world rugby. They would be rebels, which is fine in and upon itself, but they would isolate themselves from the rest of the game and would need to be OK with that. I have no doubt whatsoever that clubs would have to and want to fall in line to remain part of the EPCR and French rugby. Probably even the last thing they would want is to compete with another French domestic competition that has all the advantages they don’t.


    All those players would do good for a few seasons in France, especially the fringe ones, with thankfully zero risk of them being poached if they turn good. New Zealand had a turn at keeping all of it’s talent, and while it upticked the competitiveness of the Super Rugby teams into a total dominance of Australian and South African counterparts (who were suffering more heavily than most the other way at that stage), it didn’t have as positive an effect on the next step up as ensuring young talents development is not hindered does. Essentially NZR flooded the locate market with players but inevitably it didn’t think the local economy could sustain any more pro teams itself, so now we are seeing a normal amount of exodus for the availability of places again. Are Australia in exactly the same footing? I think so, finances where dicey for a while perhaps but I doubt they are putting money constraints on their contracting now. It’s purely about who leaves to open up opportunity.

    62 Go to comments
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