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Leinster flanker Martin Moloney on trial at Exeter Chiefs
By Neil Fissler
Exeter Chiefs have taken Leinster’s former Ireland under-20 international blindside flanker Martin Moloney on trial during pre-season as he looks to earn himself a move to the Premiership this summer.
Moloney (24), a product of his hometown club Athy RFC, made one appearance for Leinster last season off the bench in a 42-12 hammering at the Stormers in April.
Educated at Knockbeg College, Carlow, he has also played for Old Belvedere in the All-Ireland D1B and started all five games of Ireland’s 2019 Under-20 Six Nations campaign, helping them secure a Grand Slam title.
Moloney made 11 appearances in four seasons at Leinster after making his debut in the Pro14 Rainbow Cup first-round defeat against Munster in April 2021, with his first start coming against Edinburgh almost a year later.
The United Rugby Championship giants have been a happy hunting ground for Chiefs boss Rob Baxter in recent years. Ahead of the 2022-23 Premiership campaign, he signed Jack Dunne and Rory O’Loughlin.
Dunne is still at Sandy Park after putting pen to paper on a new contract early in the year after turning down a move to the Scarlets, but O’Loughlin, however, has now retired after failing to recover from a shoulder injury.
Moloney has been with the Chiefs since they reported back for pre-season training and could be involved in either of the friendlies they have planned on August 24th against London Scottish and Cornish Pirates at Sandy Park.
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Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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