1
Former NFL fullback set to join Premiership club
By Alex Shaw
As new Head of Rugby Paul Gustard looks to put his own stamp on the Harlequins side he inherited from John Kingston, RugbyPass understands that former NFL and Chicago Bears fullback Paul Lasike is set to join the club.
Lasike, 28, went undrafted out of Brigham Young University, before featuring in 10 games for the Bears. He was cut in 2017, leading to a switch to rugby following the advent of the Major League Rugby competition in the US this year.
It was not a difficult switch for Lasike to make, with the New Zealand-born centre having played plenty of rugby in his youth, including turning out for Waikato’s U18 side, and he joined the newly-formed Utah Warriors for the 2018 season.
He proved to be a wrecking ball of an inside centre in the MLR and has turned out for the USA Eagles on six occasions over the last year, including a particularly impressive performance in the Eagles’ win over Scotland this summer.
The powerful ball-carrier will bolster Quins’ options at 12, where Francis Saili had an injury-plagued 2017/18 season. New arrival Ben Tapuai is another option at inside centre, but the former Bath man is also comfortable in the outside centre spot and is a different style of midfielder to the bulldozing Lasike.
Quins lacked strike runners off of the effervescent Marcus Smith last season and the addition of Lasike would certainly provide that, as well as being competition for both Saili and Tapuai.
If he can replicate his form from the MLR and international rugby in the Premiership and continue to win collisions, Lasike could be one of the spark plugs that helps Quins move back up the Gallagher Premiership table.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
South Africa vs England player ratings | 2024 Autumn Nations Series
3
Ireland player ratings vs Argentina | 2024 Autumn Nations Series
4
Jake White: As England coach, I’d have been livid
5
Latest Comments
Im guessing you never lived in NZ under r dern and red commie labour
We were forced and in some cases mandated to take the V - I know of 7 people who D taking it and many with untold injuries - Minimium 12 K D in NZ taking it - it was never safe never effective never worked just Maimed and K'd qe were close to being thrown into quarantine camps C was only a rebranded Flu
Oz Govt MOH have completed their c commission - they admit they never had the proveable data to make justify their statements and decisions & that the public will never accept it ever happening again - they fired rubber B into peaceful protestors Ardern is hated here ( 1 M patriots forced her out ) - bloomfield her side kick 2IC dr D excempted 11k from taking it - we (not u) know who they were the Pol and Public servants who knew they were fatal - A zeneca pulled it off the market due 2 excess D's - Japan banned them - called them stupid poison -
P M Shinzo Abe opposed the v and sent over a million doses back - because of that he was murdered - So were the heads of several African nations who also opposed the fake v they were k'd and their replacements allowed their countries to be swamped with them - C was V wasnt bought in fo C - C was bought in for the V
Im not here to talk politics but if u want to I can all day especially to a RED neck commie like you - whats it going to be Rugby or Politics or mud slinging give me something to think about - surprise me with something meaty - just not word salad
Go to commentsIt doesn’t matter how good your rugby team is, at the highest level you are going to have momentum swings in games.
Wales having a good ten minute period next week- and they will- doesn’t mean the Boks will be playing poorly.
It’s if you can make the most of it when you have the momentum. And the current group of springboks do enough when they create enough, as great teams do.
For comparison, the All Blacks played their best game of the year against France.
Still lost. And it’s only France’s second game so they aren’t firing at 100% yet.
The ABs haven’t got to that ruthless stage that the springboks are at yet.
Go to comments