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Launchbury leads the way as Wasps announce 15 contract extensions
By Online Editors
England internationals Joe Launchbury, Brad Shields, Dan Robson and Jacob Umaga are among 15 Wasps players who have signed new long-term contracts ahead of next month's restart of the delayed 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership season.
The length that each contract has been extended for - including the Launchbury deal - was not specified in the story carried on the Wasps club website, but other first-team players who have opted to continue at the Ricoh Arena are Italy international Matteo Minozzi as well as academy products Gabriel Oghre, Tom Willis, Will Porter and Sam Spink.
Having signed from Newcastle in 2018, Zach Kibirige is another to extend as have Thomas Young, Jack Willis, Tom West and Sam Wolstenholme, who all only recently committed their futures to the club.
The 15th player on the list of extensions is Alfie Barbeary, who was recently promoted to the first-team squad from the academy. With the club looking to make permanent the temporary salary cut that came in when the coronavirus pandemic first broke out, contract extensions have become a ploy across the league to help keep players happy.
Wasps' XV of freshly extended deals follows recent agreements with the likes of Jimmy Gopperth, Marcus Watson, Rob Miller and Biyi Alo, while there have also been new signings in the guise of Ryan Mills and Myles Edwards.
Speaking on the club website, head coach Lee Blackett said: “I’m delighted to see so many of our existing players committing their futures to the club. We are working hard to develop a brand of winning rugby that gets supporters off their seats and having a nucleus of international experience to help bring through some of our younger players is going to be key in achieving this.
“The squad was really beginning to show glimpses of its true potential prior to the lockdown with three wins on the spin and it’s brilliant that we have been able to retain so much talent so we have a strong base and can plan for the next few years with a level of certainty.
“These have been challenging times for everybody, and I’m really proud of the way that the players have conducted themselves. Now we are fully focused on preparing for the restart of the season and a strong finish to this campaign and fulfilling the potential this squad has.”
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Latest Comments
Yeah me too. I think the Welsh have it in them to make it a contest in the first half. Give the boks' second stringers a headache. Disrupting lineouts is one area the welsh could cause problems. Bok lineouts have been subpar.
And then fronting up in the collisions and at the rucks. If the boks get the ascendancy there too early, it could be a hiding. Jaden hendrikse had a tough game against the Scots - who were very good at disrupting the boks flow. The welsh would have taken note of this i'm sure.
But the bok bench will finish the welsh off i'm afraid.
Go to commentsYes, certainly. As an AB fan happy to be included in that top 3 of "matches that are routinely decided by one score" now, we were well outside that for a few years.
They have not had enough games yet. You can't undo so many poor years just like that. Asking for miracles like SA losing is not the way to get back to number 1.
They might get there as those bad years filter out of the rankings but it's guarenteed to be great fun going back and forth with SA once that happens.
Admittedly Foster only really had one bad year (21/22 season), but that's more likely because COVID stopped a lot of tough games from being played, and effected the other countries they did play far more than themselves.
A real shame we both don't get to see it unfold first with our regions teams in SR!
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