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A summer of big change is ahead for the Armitage brothers in France
By Online Editors
Former England international Steffon Armitage could be ready to drop into Pro D2 to extend his career in France. However, older brother Delon is set to hang up his boots at the end of Lyon’s current Top 14 campaign,
Top flight strugglers Perpignan are set to be relegated following just a single season back among the French elite. Despite that impending demotion, they are already making plans to ensure they will be in a position to bounce straight back up.
After sorting out their coaching staff for next term, next up on the list of club president Francois Riviere is strengthening his team’s pack and according to French rugby newspaper Midi Olympique, two names are prominent in the administrator’s thoughts: Clermont’s Damien Chouly and Pau’s Armitage, who are both at the end of their contracts with their respective clubs.
Chouly knows Perpignan well as he spent five seasons with the Catalans and was a league winner in 2009. He is no longer a first-choice pick at Clermont and a two-year offer could tempt the soon-to-be 34-year-old.
Armitage, though, is keen on locking down a contract outside of Pau after three years at that club. The back row claimed last month in an interview that isn't ready to call it quits yet.
“I want to continue. I am certainly 33 years old but I have come out of six months of rest. I rejuvenated. Physically, I feel ready to go on for at least two years.”
Midi report a series of clubs have been linked with back row Armitage. Bordeaux-Bègles and their incoming boss Christophe Urios enquired about him, Aix-en-Provence dreamed of associating Steffon with his brother Delon (who will instead retire and take care of Lyon’s academy), while Montpellier and Stade Francais didn’t follow up their initial interest. That leaves the field potentially clear for Perpignan to take advantage.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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