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John Afoa is leaving Bristol for France
By PA
John Afoa will leave Bristol at the end of the season to follow Bears team-mate Nathan Hughes to France.
The 38-year-old former New Zealand prop has agreed to join Pro D2 side RC Vannes until 2024, ending his four-year stay at Ashton Gate.
"Jonny leaves a legacy as one of the greatest ever tightheads to play in the Premiership, said Director of Rugby Pat Lam. "As well as being a world class scrummager, his skill level and ability to play ball ('the Razzle') is second to none. To perform consistently at the top for over 20 years is a testament to his dedication, commitment and love of our game.
“Jonny was key signing for us when we returned to the Premiership in 2018 and he made the exact impact I was looking for as a leader and mentor helping the club make huge strides on our journey to Inspiring Our Community Through Rugby Success.
“I am delighted that Jonny has an opportunity to experience a new country as part of his amazing rugby journey and he departs with massive respect and the gratitude of everybody at the Bears community.”
Former England number eight Hughes, 30, is departing for French giants Clermont in the summer.
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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?
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