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Bristol sign former Harlequins wing Gabriel Ibitoye
By PA
Bristol have announced the signing of former Harlequins wing Gabriel Ibitoye. The 24-year-old had spells with French clubs Agen and Montpellier after leaving Quins, before moving to Israel and playing for Tel Aviv Heat in the Rugby Europe Super Cup.
Ibitoye, an England Under-20 international, will join Bristol ahead of next season.
Bristol rugby director Pat Lam said: “Gabriel is a hugely-talented player with the pace and versatility to threaten opposition defences.
“Coming back to the Gallagher Premiership is an exciting challenge for him.
“We see huge potential in a young player who was in the conversation for an England call-up a couple of years ago.”
Ibitoye said: “Bristol is one of the most exciting clubs in the Premiership so it’s a fantastic opportunity for me and one I’m looking forward to taking.
“The experience in both France and Israel has been great for my development, as a player and a person, but I still have ambitions on the international stage, and I feel I can achieve those objectives at Bears.
“I’ve heard really positive things about the culture and environment in Bristol so I’m excited to get started next season.”
In 2020, Ibitoye told RugbyPass that leaving England wasn't a difficult decision, even if things didn't ultimately pan out in Montpellier and Agen, where he was voted the league's biggest flop in his first season.
“It wasn’t a tough decision to make, to be honest,” he explains. “This current England team have a fantastic back three and I’d be lying to myself if I said I was as good as them. I think this move will accelerate my development and then hopefully in a few years’ time I’ll be at that level.
“I made the decision myself. If I’d been in contention many conversations [with Eddie Jones] would have been had but I knew I didn’t have to have those conversations because I’m not there.”
additional reporting RugbyPass
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Ford completely took the energy out the game for us, waving his hands telling people to calm down. Just for us to die off and lose the momentum.
Bringing him on all the time to ‘close out’ games is condescending to Smith. Get Ford out and let Marcus Smith & Fin Smith run the show. The future is them so give them the keys and let them get on with it.
Go to commentsTaking Marcus Smith off was a big puzzle and probably cost England the game. However, Abs created more opportunities and scored some tries but left a lot out there through sloppy execution, not playing to the ref and no enforcement of English off-side play. The fact the game was close all through made it worth watching but it was a frustrating pectacle. English succeeded in slowing the game down and were in the refs ear which Gardner allowed. I think Ireland or France will punish the sloppy execution more than England so still much for ABs to work on.
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