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UK return off the cards for ex-England star Dan Robson

Pau's French full-back Thomas Carol (back) and Pau's English scrum-half Dan Robson (R) celebrate at the end of the French Top 14 rugby union match between Section Paloise and Stade Français at the Hameau stadium in Pau southwestern France, on November 25, 2023. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP) (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Former England scrum-half Dan Robson has moved a step closer to finishing his career in France after signing a one-year extension with Top 14 outfit Pau.

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Stoke-on-Trent-born Robson, 32, who won 16 England caps, rejected the chance to stay in the Premiership and moved to Pau in 2022 after being made redundant when Wasps were liquidated.

Robson started his career with a five-year stint with Gloucester before moving to Wasps in 2015, where he played 162 games, including Premiership final losses in 2017 and 2019 to Exeter Chiefs.

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He has played 55 games and scored five tries since moving to the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, including touching down once in nine games for the club this season.

Pau finished ninth in the Top 14 last season after winning half of their 26 games, but they have struggled this time around. They are currently 12th with 15 points, one more than Stade Francais and four ahead of Vannes.

Robson, speaking to FR-UK Rugby in the summer, admitted that he loves life in France, making it no surprise that he has extended his stay for at least another year.

“Waking up and looking at their view takes your breath away. The ambition of the club drew me here, and we wanted to progress. We are where we want to be as a club instead of scrapping around at the bottom.

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“I’m enjoying it, and that always helps. I want to tune up on the rugby here. I knew they were passionate, like most French teams are. But I got a bit of a shock when I first arrived and ran out at the Stade du Hameau.

“The town and crowd have bought into us. The crowds have gone through the roof. Every week feels like a big game, a bit of a knockout game, a bit of a derby because the crowds are just firing into you. It’s just brilliant,” he said.

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Tom 1 hour ago
Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode

The problem for me isn't the pragmatic playstyle, it's that there is no attacking gameplan whatsoever.


I've got no issue with a methodical, kick heavy, defense centric gameplan. That playstyle won England our only world cup and it's won SA 4 of them. However! You can play in a pragmatic manner but you have to still play heads-up rugby and have the ability to turn it on when you manufacture prime attacking situations. England work very hard to get in the right areas of the pitch and have no idea how to convert when they get there, hence we tried and missed 3 drop goals as we were completely impotent in the 22. I've not seen any improvement in our attack in the last 4-5 years. The only time we got close to the tryline was from an interception, it's embarrassing. I don't know what Richard Wigglesworth is getting paid for.


I agree that England should have found a way to close out that game. Being able to grind out tough games is critical but I'd argue that being unable to string more than a couple of passes together without dropping it and finding a way to get over the gainline is even more important... But frustratingly, they don't seem interested. All you hear is about how close we are to bring a great team, we just need to execute a bit better. I don't see it. I see a team who are very physical, very pragmatic who do some stuff really well and are useless with the ball in hand which adds up to a very average side. They need to stop focusing on getting 5% better at the stuff we're already at an 8/10 level and focus on getting a lot better at the stuff we're doing at a 2/10 level. We have the worst attack of pretty much any side in the world... Argentina, Scotland, Fiji are way more threatening.

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