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Northampton sign Skosan, the Springboks winger last capped in 2017

(Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images

Chris Boyd’s Northampton have unveiled the signing of Springboks winger Courtnall Skosan from Sigma Lions. The 30-year-old, who earned the last of his twelve caps for South Africa in 2017 versus Italy, has made over 100 appearances across the Super Rugby and Currie Cup competitions.

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A Northampton statement read: “Blessed with explosive pace and an impressive work rate, as well as sharp handling and kicking game, Skosan is a winger with plenty to offer on both sides of the ball and brings bags of experience to Northampton’s group of back three players.

“Growing up in Cape Town, where he was noticed playing 7s by Springbok legend Chester Williams, Skosan’s break came in Pretoria with the Blue Bulls at the start of his career before making the switch to Johannesburg to play for the Lions in 2014 – winning the Currie Cup one year later, and reaching the Super Rugby final three years running from 2016-2018.

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“The winger also played for South Africa at the World Rugby U20 Championship in 2011 and South Africa A in 2016 before his full international debut for the Springboks in 2017.

“Skosan will land at Franklin’s Gardens in the coming weeks with Saints’ preseason preparations for the new Gallagher Premiership campaign now in full swing.”

Skosan said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be taking on a new adventure in England with Northampton Saints. It’s a club with an incredible history of success, competing in two of the best tournaments in the world in the Premiership and Champions Cup, and I’ve heard fantastic things about how good it is to play at Franklin’s Gardens. I’m relishing the opportunity to get over to Northampton and hit the ground running with such an exciting group of players and coaches.”

Northampton boss Boyd added: “Courtnall obviously is a winger with a sharp turn of pace and a high level of athleticism, but he also brings a fantastic work rate and is well suited to the physicality of the Premiership. 

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“He has plenty of experience playing top-level rugby internationally with South Africa and in Super Rugby with the Lions. We know he will add something unique to our back three group so we’re delighted to bring him to Northampton ahead of the new season.”

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Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 40 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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