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Two clear front-runners in the chase for Mark Wilson

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

After a standout season in which he established himself in the England side, Mark Wilson has become one of the hottest properties in rugby this summer.

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The 29-year-old, who played in all nine of England’s games during the 2018/19 season, has become available following Newcastle Falcons’ relegation to the Greene King IPA Championship, albeit only on a loan basis, with the flanker keen to return to the club should they secure promotion back to the Gallagher Premiership.

Wilson has been with Newcastle for his entire professional career, making over 220 appearances in all competitions, and a temporary move away is the only way for the back rower to continue his international career following the Rugby World Cup.

Plenty of teams have been linked with the in-demand man, but RugbyPass understand that it has become largely a two-horse race between Sale Sharks and Harlequins for Wilson’s considerable, albeit short-term, services.

RugbyPass also understand that Leicester Tigers are still showing interest in the Kendal-native, whilst London Irish had expressed interest in Wilson, although they have since fallen out of the running.

Sale have recruited heavily this summer, bringing in the likes of Lood de Jager, Akker van der Merwe and Robert du Preez from South Africa, as well as luring Wilson’s current teammate Simon Hammersley down from the north-east.

Sharks are already loaning in two back rowers in the forms of Dan and Jean-Luc du Preez, although that has not dampened their interest in a temporary move for Wilson.

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As for Harlequins, they have let a number of high earners leave the club this summer and used that salary cap space to bring in the likes of Stephan Lewies, Scott Baldwin and Michele Campagnaro, among others.

They have supplemented their back row options with the additions of Tom Lawday and Will Evans, too, although Mat Luamanu and Luke Wallace have left the club, freeing up space in the loose forwards.

With the flanker keen on adding to his tally of 13 England caps and returning to Newcastle for the 2020/21 season, having signed a new four-year deal back in January, his decision could come down to which club he believes will give him the better chance of doing that.

Wilson was recently announced in both of Eddie Jones’ two initial training camps for the Rugby World Cup later this year and, barring injury, looks set to be one of the 31 players that boards the plane to Japan.

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J
JW 16 minutes ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

Well I was mainly referring to my thinking about the split, which was essentially each /3 rounded up, but reliant on WCs to add buffer.


You may have been going for just a 16 team league ranking cup?


But yes, those were just ideas for how to select WCs, all very arbitrary but I think more interesting in ways than just going down a list (say like fl's) of who is next in line. Indeed in my reply to you I hinted at say the 'URC' WC spot actually being given to the Ireland pool and taken away from the Welsh pool.


It's easy to think that is excluding, and making it even harder on, a poor performing country, but this is all in context of a 18 or 20 team comp where URC (at least to those teams in the URC) got 6 places, which Wales has one side lingering around, and you'd expect should make. Imagine the spice in that 6N game with Italy, or any other of the URC members though! Everyone talks about SA joining the 6N, so not sure it will be a problem, but it would be a fairly minor one imo.


But that's a structure of the leagues were instead of thinking how to get in at the top, I started from the bottom and thought that it best those teams doing qualify for anything. Then I thought the two comps should be identical in structure. So that's were an even split comes in with creating numbers, and the 'UEFA' model you suggest using in some manner, I thought could be used for the WC's (5 in my 20 team comp) instead of those ideas of mine you pointed out.


I see Jones has waded in like his normal self when it comes to SH teams. One thing I really like about his idea is the name change to the two competitions, to Cup and Shield. Oh, and home and away matches.

41 Go to comments
f
fl 1 hour ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Yes I was the one who suggested to use a UEFA style point. And I guessed, that based on the last 5 years we should start with 6 top14, 6 URC and 4 Prem."

Yes I am aware that you suggested it, but you then went on to say that we should initially start with a balance that clearly wasn't derived from that system. I'm not a mind reader, so how was I to work out that you'd arrived at that balance by dint of completely having failed to remember the history of the competition.


"Again, I was the one suggesting that, but you didn't like the outcome of that."

I have no issues with the outcome of that, I had an issue with a completely random allocation of teams that you plucked out of thin air.

Interestingly its you who now seem to be renouncing the UEFA style points system, because you don't like the outcome of reducing URC representation.


"4 teams for Top14, URC and Prem, 3 teams for other leagues and the last winner, what do you think?"

What about 4 each + 4 to the best performing teams in last years competition not to have otherwise qualified? Or what about a UEFA style system where places are allocated to leagues on the basis of their performance in previous years' competitions?

There's no point including Black Lion if they're just going to get whitewashed every year, which I think would be a possibility. At most I'd support 1 team from the Rugby Europe Super Cup, or the Russian Championship being included. Maybe the best placed non-Israeli team and the Russian winners could play off every year for the spot? But honestly I think its best if they stay limited to the Challenge Cup for now.

41 Go to comments
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