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Bath sign American football's Alex Gray
By Online Editors
Bath have delved into the American football market to bolster their midfield for the 2020/21 season, signing Atlanta Falcons tight-end Alex Gray, the ex-England 7s rugby player who previously featured for Yorkshire Carnegie, London Irish and Newcastle.
The 29-year-old had called time on his rugby career to see could he make it as an American footballer in the NFL. Now, after three years in the Falcons practice squad, he has returned to England to give rugby a second go.
It was 2016 when Gray put his rugby career on hold to chase his NFL dream. After progressing through the NFL's international player pathway programme in Florida, he was snapped up by Atlanta and has been part of their practice squad since then.
Standing at 6ft 4ins and weighing 113kgs, Bath are hoping Gray will bring "an exciting point of difference after being carefully selected through a rigorous recruitment process".
Explaining why he chased down Gray's signature, Bath boss Stuart Hooper told the club website: “Alex is a confident and very talented rugby player who brings in a lot of experience to the group.
"He is an adventurous individual that has done a lot of great things in this sport as well as striving to earn a career in the NFL in his most recent professional outing. We have been keeping tabs on Alex for a long time now and when the opportunity arose to sign him, we couldn’t pass on that.
"He will join up with a talented group of players with calibre for their attacking style of play. I'm confident that he will fit seamlessly into the group here at Bath and we look forward to seeing how he develops his game.”
Bath have form for trying to integrate players from other sports into their squad, signing Sam Burgess from rugby league in Australia in 2014.
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Latest Comments
Well said. All this rubbish circulating that Richie Mo’unga could not step up to international rugby. He was so dominant for the Crusaders in there 7 title wins . But had to put up with doubting Thomas fickle Foster. The AB’s limited game plan in that time was terrible. Richie Mo’unga is a wonderful 10.
Go to commentsHe does cover them but he's not as good as any of the other specialist backrowers in any of them. He's not as good an 8 as Conan or Doris, he's not as good a flanker as any of the flankers I've mentioned and he's not as good a hybrid as Earl (yet).
At the moment most of his involvements are ball in hand but lightweight test number 8s aren't really a thing and his jackal work isn't test standard yet. I wouldn't put it beyond Pollock to play his way into contention, if anyone could do it, he could but I don't see it personally. If the Lions tour were in 2 years absolutely he'd be there. If Earl gets injured it makes it a lot more likely. I reckon Pollock may get a mid-tour callup. I'm pretty confident he won't go on the first plane though.
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