12 November 2010
extend his stay at Harlequins following the lead of captain Will Skinner and fly-half Nick Evans. A new two-year deal is on the table
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for the prop (right) who has gained plenty of media exposure this season for that Mohican-style haircut. Now Quins want him to continue his development in a settled squad already boosted by the decisions of Skinner and Evans to sign up. Marler is on the senior England radar having attended training in the build up to the All Blacks match. His only setback this season came when a facial infection, which required prompt hospital treatment, caused him to miss the Premiership draw against Bath at the Stoop 10 days’ ago.
NEW financial results to be published by the Rugby Football Union next week will highlight the growing success of the new South Stand development which has produced a £10.4 million profit compared to £3 million last year.
Overall, the RFU are set to post an
operating profit of £25.8 million which is down about £6 million on the previous year. Total revenue dropped £7.2 million from £119.2 million to £112 million.
RFU officials will explain the drop
due to Twickenham staging only two Six Nations games and three autumn internationals. Overall ticket revenue dropped from £29.2 million to £21.3 million.
QUINS’ disgraced former boss Dean Richards will be a spectator at next Friday’s Welford Road Premiership showdown between his two old clubs. Leicester have used Richards to advertise his appearance at corporate hospitality events for the game promising ‘a fantastic evening of entertainment’. His return again highlights that
relations between Richards and Leicester continue to thaw.
He was so disgusted at the way
Tigers’ main men showed him the door six years ago that he promptly removed his memorabilia from the bar named in his honour. That frostiness began to thaw
when he returned as Quins’ director of rugby and was given a warm ovation. Richards is presently 14 months
into his three-year ban for his part in ‘Bloodgate’ and remains locked in arguments with the International Rugby Board and Rugby Football Union.
His legal people are determined to
agree exactly what the ban relates to but it has still not stopped Richards helping a consultancy company, coaching his son’s school team and, judging by Leicester’s advertising, speaking at a club’s corporate hospitality functions.
The visit of Quins has taken on an extra edge after they won last week’s LV= Cup match at Welford Road. It was their first win at the ground for 13 years. Can they repeat the feat?
RFU president Richard Appleby has been attempting this week to placate angry council members in the row over the chairmanship which should be up for grabs this summer.
INLESS Italian club Aironi has axed their coach halfway through the Magners League season. In a statement issued on Monday it was announced that Rowland Phillips was appointed as the new coach of Aironi. The board of the Italian franchise took the decision on Sunday, following the 8-33 defeat
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NGLAND under-20 prop Joe Marler looks set to become the latest frontline player to
www.rugbytimes.com
Marler set to pledge his future to Quins
A council-wide email described last Friday’s meeting as ‘comprehensive and productive’ after a move to debate the chairmanship issue was defeated 26-15. That vote effectively endorsed the decision of the management board to call a special general meeting on Wednesday, December 15, which proposes to change regulations allowing chairman Martyn Thomas to stand again despite the supposed end of his six-year, fixed term. A two-thirds majority is needed to
make the role an annual election which will allow Thomas to stand again, having gained the backing of the management board. Appleby urged council members not to make media statements apart from maintaining the pubic position that the special meeting was going ahead following that ‘comprehensive and productive’ meeting.
KIERAN Brookes is a prop gaining plenty of admiration for his efforts at both loose and tight head in Newcastle’s headline-grabbing scrum. The 20-year-old is being tracked by a number of rival Premiership clubs while his Irish qualification makes him of interest to Munster. Brookes, who started his career at Fylde, was the prop whose controversial substitution was highlighted by ESPN coverage at Northampton.
He first went off in the 32nd minute and came back on at tight-head early in the second half after, in the words of assistant coach Paul Moriarty, ‘taking a break’.
Moriarty is now the subject of an inquiry by the Rugby Football Union who are considering a disrepute charge for his comments inferring that Brookes was deliberately rested in contravention of substitute rules. Brookes, meanwhile, has gained
further interest due to his versatility. Though he is 6ft 1 and 19st he has also played reserve team rugby at hooker.
HAS Newcastle’s director of rugby Alan Tait got himself a ‘Christmas present’ in the shape of Auckland lock Andrew van der Heijden? Tait has spoken about bringing in a new player or two towards December in order to freshen up his squad at Kingston Park.
It is a move he felt worked well in his rugby league days during the
successful dynasty of coach Doug Laughton at Widnes.
But van Heijden’s debut has been delayed because he broke his arm in a recent New Zealand Cup game and Newcastle are awaiting further medical reports. Perhaps, he will be a real Christmas present.
PROPS are in short supply at Oxford University. Wasps sent up Bob Baker to play as a guest in a friendly against Sale Jets this week and he ended up on the losing side, 25-43.
PROPS are also valuable commodities but Northampton must decide if they can continue to afford Euan Murray while the Scotland prop insists he cannot play on Sundays because of religious beliefs.
Murray’s stance will rule him out of contention in seven games before Christmas. It is one reason why he has lost out to South African Brian Mujati for the starter’s jersey. But his recent omission completely for the Newcastle match, which was staged on a Saturday, set off further chatter especially after director of rugby Jim Mallinder said there was no injury reason why Murray had missed out on bench duties.
Murray could not play last Sunday at Saracens and when he plays for Scotland, tomorrow (Sat) against New Zealand at Murrayfield, it will be only his second start this season.
MAIDSTONE player Matt Iles will face a delayed disciplinary panel on November 23 after Gravesend’s Clarence Harding was left blind in one eye following a Kent Cup match last January.
No charges followed a police investigation and the matter is now in the hands of the Rugby Football Union. It was originally scheduled for late October but postponed on the request of disciplinary officer Jeff Blackett while further medical evidence was clarified.
LEICESTER’S challenge match against the Wallabies prompted Peter Wheeler, the club’s former England hooker and now executive director, to recount one of his best stories.
Wheeler was once sent off
alongside Wallaby rival Mark McBain, during a rowdy Midlands tour match against and the tourists in 1984. Judging by his notes in the match-
against Glasgow Warriors last Friday. It was the club's eight straight defeat in the competition.
Phillips takes the place of Franco Bernini, who become the new 'technical manager' of the club and will be now involved in the growth of the young prospects playing in the Aironi's farm teams GranDucato and Crociati. Phillips arrived in Viadana during the off-
season as the new Aironi defence coach, the same role he covered for Ospreys and for Wales.
He will now take charge of the coaching
staff, with Andrea Moretti coaching the forwards and Andrew Scotney and Antonio Zanichelli training the backs. According to the statement this change in coaching staff is part of a "growing process".
day programme, Wheeler and McBain gained revenge on referee Winston Jones when the Wallabies next visited four years later when they had both become coaches.
Somehow Wheeler persuaded the
officials to allow them both to present ties and souvenirs at the post-match dinner set round a swimming pool in a Leicester hotel.
“This was far too much temptation for Mark and me,” wrote Wheeler. “Winston somehow slipped into the pool with quite a big splash as he received more than the memento he was expecting.
“Good job they did not have codes of conduct in those days!”
THE 16-year-old son of former All Blacks rugby captain Tana Umaga has signed a development contract with the Melbourne Storm in Australia's
National Rugby League. High school student Cade Umaga,
a back rower, has previously played for Wellington province at age-group. He follows closely in his father's
footsteps. Tana was a junior New Zealand rugby league representative and briefly played for the Newcastle Knights in Australia before switching to union.
MICHAEL MALTMAN, one of the few unqualified successes of Moseley’s stuttering season, will be watched by the Scottish selectors in Friday’s Championship showdown with Doncaster.
The 20-year-old back-rower
produced yet another excellent performance in the 28-17 defeat at Rotherham on Saturday.
It helps that head coach Ian Smith won 25 Scotland caps in his playing career.
MAGNERS LEAGUE
Munster (1) Scarlets (2)
Cardiff Blues (3) Edinburgh (8) Ulster (4)
Leinster (6)
P W D L F A Diff TB LB PTS 7 6 0 1 178 101 77 3 1 28 7 5 0 2 191 136 55 2 2 24 7 5 0 2 171 110 61 2 1 23 8 4 0 4 159 156 3 1 2 19 7 4 1 2 134 131 3 0 1 19 7 4 0 3 140 139 1 1 1 18
Benetton Treviso (6) 8 4 0 4 152 182 -30 0 0 16 Ospreys (5)
7 2 1 4 136 148 -12 1 2 13 8 0 0 8 73 241 -168 0 2 2
LEADING TRY SCORERS
Edinburgh (10) ......................21 Benetton Treviso (6) ................9 Edinburgh - T: Netani Talei, Kyle Traynor. C: David Blair. P: David Blair 3. Benetton Treviso - P: Tobie Botes 3. Referee: Leighton Hodges Att: 2422.
Glasgow Warriors (20) ............33 Aironi (3) ..............................8 Glasgow Warriors - T: Federico Aramburu, Peter Murchie, DTH van der Merwe. C: Duncan Weir 2. P: Duncan Weir 3. Aironi - T: Luigi Ferraro. P: Ludovic Mercier.
Referee: Simon McDowell Att: 2078.
Jonathan Davies Scarlets ............6 Tim Visser
DTH van der Merwe Fionn Carr
Connacht ..........4
Richard Fussell Ospreys ............4 George North Scarlets ............4 Nikki Walker
Ospreys ............4 LEADING POINTS SCORERS
Ian Keatley Tobie Botes Isa Nacewa
Connacht ........91 Treviso ............75 Leinster ..........73
Ronan O'Gara Munster ..........68 Duncan Weir
Glasgow..........68
Edinburgh ........6 Glasgow ..........5
7 3 0 4 166 141 25 2 2 16
Glasgow Warriors (11) 8 3 0 5 174 172 2 1 3 16 Newport Gwent (10) 7 3 0 4 145 162 -17 0 1 13 Connacht (9) Aironi (12)
Friday, November 5
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