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Joe Batley becomes the latest Worcester player to find a new club
By Liam Heagney
Joe Batley has become the latest Worcester player to find alternative employment, the forward finding a new club just a day after he became a free agent after his Warriors contract was terminated at an insolvency court. Club captain Ted Hill, Ollie Lawrence, Fergus Lee-Warner and Valeriy Morozov had already joined Bath on loan on Monday, and the exodus continued on Wednesday with Duhan van der Merwe re-joining his old club Edinburgh within hours of the liquidation of WRFC Players Ltd, the subsidiary company that held all player and some staff contracts.
Similar to van der Merwe, Batley will also be retracing his old steps as he has been snapped up by Pat Lam’s Bristol, who had a vacancy to fill following the long-term injury picked up last month by lock Sam Jeffries. Batley made appearances for Bristol across three seasons before moving on to Worcester for the post-lockdown restart of the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership season.
He tweeted: “I’m extremely grateful to Bristol Bears for picking me up. I’m excited to be back in bear country and the challenges that come with it. I feel extremely lucky to continue to fulfil my dreams and aspirations of a professional rugby player. As well as providing for my family.”
A club statement read: “Versatile forward Joe Batley has re-joined Bristol Bears with immediate effect. The 26-year-old, who can play in the second row and back row, returns to Ashton Gate after leaving Worcester Warriors.”
Director of rugby Lam added: "It's been a challenging time for Joe and his family, but we are pleased to be able to bring him back into a club and system he knows and enjoys. He has grown and developed massively during his time in Worcester, and I know he will add real value to our team going forward.”
It was during his previous spell at Bristol that Batley was diagnosed with cancer in February 2018, an experience he spoke about at length last April to RugbyPass. “We won the Championship and I was like, ‘Okay, I want to kick on again and play in the Prem, that is my dream’. To get cancer then kind of put a whole new twist on everything where rugby was my passion, it was what I loved to do but it wasn’t my everything. It became more about family, about what I wanted to do.
“Luckily I was then able to play Premiership with Bristol and had a small stint with Leicester before getting the shot here at Worcester. I am just finding that I’m enjoying my rugby a lot more now because I have taken the pressure off performing."
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Latest Comments
No he's just limited in what he can do. Like Scott Robertson. And Eddie Jones.
Sometimes it doesn't work out so you have to go looking for another national coach who supports his country and believes in what he is doing. Like NZ replacing Ian Foster. And South Africa bringing Erasmus back in to over see Neinbar.
This is the real world. Not the fantasy oh you don't need passion for your country for international rugby. Ask a kiwi, or a south african or a frenchman.
Go to commentsDont complain too much or start jumping to conclusions.
Here in NZ commentators have been blabbing that our bottom pathway competition the NPC (provincial teams only like Taranaki, Wellington etc)is not fit for purpose ie supplying players to Super rugby level then they started blabbing that our Super Rugby comp (combined provincial unions making up, Crusaders, Hurricanes, etc) wasn't good enough without the South African teams and for the style SA and the northern powers play at test level.
Here is what I reckon, Our comps are good enough for how WE want to play rugby not how Ireland, SA, England etc play. Our comps are high tempo, more rucks, mauls, running plays, kicks in play, returns, in a game than most YES alot of repetition but that builds attacking skillsets and mindsets. I don't want to see world teams all play the same they all have their own identity and style as do England (we were scared with all this kind of talk when they came here) World powerhouse for a reason, losses this year have been by the tiniest of margins and could have gone either way in alot of games. Built around forward power and blitz defence they have got a great attack Wingers are chosen for their Xfactor now not can they chase up and unders all day. Stick to your guns its not far off
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