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Saracens statement: The signing of another ex-London Irish player

(Photo by MB Media/Getty Images)

Mark McCall has bolstered his title-winning Saracens squad with the recruitment of yet another player from the financially collapsed London Irish. The Exiles were suspended by the RFU in early June, resulting in a footrace to recruit their brightest talents.

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It was June 22 when Saracens, the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership champions, announced the signing of the one-cap Wallabies prop Ollie Hoskins.

The capture of Argentina winger Lucio Cinti, another ex-London Irish free agent, then followed five days later, and the Londoners have now convinced back-rower Juan Martin Gonzalez Samso that his club future will also be best served at the StoneX following the upcoming Rugby World Cup with Argentina.

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A statement read: “Saracens are delighted to announce the signing of back-rower Juan Martin Gonzalez Samso. The Argentina international, who already has 22 caps for his country at the age of just 22, is an energetic flanker who will bring more depth to the base of the scrum at StoneX Stadium.

“Gonzalez, who stands at 6ft 3ins and weighs 105kgs, has been with London Irish since 2021 but will make the move to Saracens after the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup.

“Formerly of Jaguares, Gonzalez has scored six tries for his country, including on his debut against Romania. He is currently starring in their Rugby Championship campaign, including their win over Australia in Sydney.

“Gonzalez will be reunited with fellow countryman Lucio Cinti, who is also making the move to StoneX, and they will both be looking to follow in the footsteps of other Argentinians who have succeeded at Sarries such as Juan Figallo and Marcelo Bosch.”

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Gonzalez said: “I am very excited to meet the players and the fans. I will give everything to make sure the team goes well!”

Director of rugby McCall added: “Juan is a player who we are very excited about. He has shown his ability in the Premiership over the past couple of seasons and we believe he has his best rugby ahead of him.”

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fl 2 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

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