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France is the next stop for one of England's under-20 World Cup winners from 2014
By Online Editors
Saracens have been busy this week getting organised for next season. Thursday’s announcement that Marcelo Bosch is to leave the club at the end of the current campaign followed on from the earlier revelation that Richard Wigglesworth is to help out Ealing Trailfinders as their attack coach.
However, that hasn’t been the only bit of business the Londoners have done in a week where they qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions Cup and organised a five-year tie-up with Tottenham FC for use of their new football stadium for their annual March big fixture.
With so many stars on Mark McCall’s trophy-winning roster, Hayden Thompson-Stringer has struggled to make a lasting impact during his apprenticeship at the club.
Of his 32 appearances, just seven have been as a starter since 2014. However, that restricted opportunity hasn’t stopped his potential being noticed elsewhere as high-flying Pro D2 outfit Brive have snapped up the loosehead prop on a two-year deal.
Thompson-Stringer, who has also played in the back and second rows, was an under-20 World Cup winner in June 2014 in New Zealand in an England squad that featured Maro Itoje and Billy Burns.
He has also had loan stints away from Saracens, spending some time at Bedford in the Championship while also heading down to Australia in 2016 to hook up with Manly for some Shute Shield action and giving his transformation to prop a go.
This season he has featured twice off the bench in the Premiership, while also appearing as a Champions Cup sub in a pool game versus Lyon.
Brive boss Jeremy Davidson, the former Ireland and Lions second row, was delighted he convinced Thompson-Stringer his future was best served in France at a club that could potentially be in the Top 14 by the time the English forward arrives as they are chasing hard to gain promotion from the lower league.
"Hayden is a loosehead prop with great potential who is coming to gain experience and maturity in France. He is a very explosive and dynamic player in the game, both in attack and defence.”
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Latest Comments
Galthie’s behaviour in the last few weeks has had a chilling effect on the officials in Paris on Saturday. He was able to attack the citing commission, the officiating (no direct attack on individuals, he left that to FFR head). It started with his disinformation campaign about the Ntamack versus Ringrose ban. Media, rugby sites and pods have a lot of culpability for allowing Galthie’s BS to go a couple of times around the world before bother to reading the written decision and why both cases were very different re club matches counting. They might have also pointed out that up until then France had more citings under Galthie and favourable decisions under the commission than all other 6 Nations combined.
We can’t situation where coaches can tie up and outrage the rugby world with clickbait outrage without the rugby world bothering to check if it has substance. We saw the result on Saturday. If any nation should be complaining about injustice its Scotland NOT France.
Go to commentsCane and McCaw didn’t jump in the lineout. The argument doesn’t make sense. Kirifi can bring things to the mix, that’s undeniable. He’s very combative, a real pest in the rucks, and he repeats the efforts. He’s a bundle of energy.
Besides, I don’t see how the careers of Blackadder, Jacobson, and Papalii in the All Blacks demonstrate that they are more indispensable at the moment?
Kirifi needs to be tested. And even if he might not be considered an automatic starter, he would be a good squad player. For 2027, I imagine a back row of Frizell/Savea/Sititi. Sititi at 7."
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