1
Gareth Anscombe visits Kingsholm as Gloucester hunt new fly-half
By Neil Fissler
Gareth Anscombe has been shown around Kingsholm as Gloucester step up their bid to sign a new fly-half, with Scotland international Adam Hastings joining Glasgow next season.
Hastings confirmed his departure earlier this month after contract talks with the Cherry and Whites stalled at the last minute, allowing the Warriors to make their move.
RugbyPass understands that Gloucester were keen to re-sign out-of-favour Ireland international Billy Burns, who made nearly 100 appearances for the Gallagher Premiership club. He is leaving Ulster this summer but has opted for Munster instead.
The 32-year-old Auckland-born Anscombe, an ex-New Zealand U20s international who has won 37 Wales caps, was due to play for Japanese outfit Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath after the recent Rugby World Cup in France.
However, his registration was cancelled just two weeks after signing when a scan revealed he needed an operation on the groin he damaged during the warm-up before Wales’ World Cup clash with Georgia.
Anscombe faced 10 weeks on the sideline after undergoing the operation. Under Japan League One rules, teams can only register three category three players (foreign-capped players) at any one time.
He could be re-registered by Suntory, who replaced him with Argentina's Nicolas Sanchez, if he regains his fitness before the end of the club season which runs until May.
Anscombe, who left the Ospreys at the end of last season, has been doing his rehab in South Wales and is thinking over Gloucester’s offer after meeting them for talks and a guided tour of their facilities.
He is the second big name linked this week with George Skivington's ninth-place Premiership side as RugbyPass revealed on Tuesday that they were also weighing up a move for ex-England winger Christian Wade, who is currently playing for Racing 92.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Zebre put up for sale by Italian Rugby Federation
3
Stuart Lancaster 'wants out' of Racing 92 and eyeing Euro giants job
4
Henry Arundell lined up for early England homecoming
5
Latest Comments
"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"
I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.
But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.
Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.
"I'm afraid to say"
Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!
Go to commentsYou are a very horrible man Ojohn. Brain injury perhaps?
Go to comments