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'His last chance' - Agen sign controversial centre
By Ian Cameron
Agen have formally signed controversial centre George Tilsley, who was released by Toulouse earlier this summer after being convicted on a domestic violence charge.
Tilsley was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for assaulting his girlfriend. The 31-year-old winger was placed in police custody on 10 August and subsequently pleaded guilty to the charges against him. Toulouse then sacked him.
Now Agen, his former club have signed him until 2025, saying both he and the club are aware that this is a 'last chance' for the former New Zealand Sevens star.
Agen have issued a statement in which they explain why they have re-signed the 6'5, 100kg centre: "Eight years ago, it was SUA LG that gave George his first chance in a French professional club. So we have a special history with him.
"We all know his situation, but today he is coming home, in Armandie, and we are aware of being the club which is giving him his last chance. George knows that he must more than anyone be irreproachable, on and off the field.
"This responsibility is his, the club will be uncompromising on his behavior as he is with all the players who wear the image of SUA LG."
Tilsley was the first player of Papua New Guinea heritage to represent the New Zealand sevens team. He has represented Manawatu, Bordeaux and Perpignan in the past, and although attached to Toulouse for a short period before his sacking, never played a game for them.
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Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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