Coventry sign promising young prop from Ealing
Coventry Rugby boss Alex Rae has fitted another piece into his squad jigsaw with the signing on a season-long loan of Ealing prop Elliot Chilvers.
The highly-regarded 22-year-old is already in pre-season training at the Butts Park Arena ahead of Cov’s August 19th pre-season friendly against visitors Leicester Lions.
Chilvers has been on the books at Ealing since joining the club three years ago while completing a degree at Brunel University.
During this time the loose head prop spent a season on loan at Cov’s Championship rivals London Scottish where he picked up valuable game time and experience in English rugby’s second tier.
The Ipswich product spent his formative years in Northampton Saints’ junior academy and has also spent time playing club rugby in Australia with Sydney’s Northern Suburbs.
Chilvers becomes the second promising Ealing youngster to pen a long-term loan deal with the Blue-and-Whites following Rae’s summer acquisition of Welsh second row Rhys Anstey.
Cov’s head coach expressed gratitude to Ealing counterpart Ben Ward before going on to welcome Chilvers to his playing squad.
“Thanks to Ben and Ealing for placing their trust in us to develop one of their young players," he said.
"It’s great to welcome Elliot to Coventry - he’s a talented young prop who just needs to play and develop. He’s fitted in really well and we’re looking forward to seeing how he goes.”
Chilvers joins Toby Trinder as a specialist loose head prop while another ex-Trailfinder Harry Seward and Eliot Salt are set to contest the tight head berth. In addition, the versatile Ollie Andrews is able to operate on both sides of the front row.
Cov’s competitive season begins with a much-anticipated September 9th Butts Park Arena clash with Gallagher Premiership champions Saracens in the newly-launched cup competition and Chilvers can hardly wait.
“The cup competition is especially exciting and I’m really hoping to be involved against Sarries so I can test myself against the very best,” he said.
“I had a few injuries last season and also spent some time in Australia. I’m looking forward to getting back into regular rugby so when the opportunity came to play some rugby at Cov I was very keen to take it.
“Training has been really enjoyable so far and I am living in a house with some of the other lads which has been a bit chaotic but lots of fun.”
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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