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Special arrangement in place for Cokanasiga's move to Bath - reports

Joe Cokanasiga in action for his previous club London Irish

London Irish are trying to stem the flow of talent leaving the club by striking up a season-long loan arrangement with Bath for Joe Cokanasiga, according to ESPN.

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RugbyPass exclusively revealed back in March that the former England U20 standout Joe Cokanasiga was moving to the Rec.

Bath had been in competition with both Wasps and Saracens for the wing, but Todd Blackadder’s side won out  the 20-year-old will head to the Rec next season.

Cokanasiga, who came through the Irish academy and was part of the side which won the U18 Academy League in 2016, recently signed a new deal at his boyhood club, but the deal included a relegation release clause in the contract.

With Cokanasiga having been included multiple times in larger England training squads and taken on the summer tour to Argentina last year, his hopes of locking down a permanent spot in the side would not be helped by spending another season in the Greene King IPA Championship.

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A move to Bath will see Cokanasiga fill the void created by Matt Banahan’s departure to West Country rivals Gloucester. He does not have the same positional versatility or experience as Banahan but brings his own set of skills to the position, including a size element that is hard to ignore.

He will give Blackadder a physical presence on the wing that he has not had since he coached Nemani Nadolo at the Crusaders and whilst still raw, the potential is clear to see.

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Cokanasiga, whose father played for the Army rugby side, has previously said that Semesa Rokoduguni is one of the players in the game he looks up to, and now the pair will line up together in the Bath back three next season.

London Irish are struggling to hang on to their talent with Saracens raiding London Irish for a second time in a matter of months, signing 23-year-old hooker Tom Woolstencroft earlier this week.

In January 26-year-old winger Lewington confirmed his move to Saracens.

The former Leicester Tigers man represented England Saxons in South Africa during the summer of 2016 and scored 27 tries in 73 matches for Irish since he joined from Leicester in 2013.

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World Cup-winning All Black Ben Franks is heading to Northampton, while Johnny Williams is on his way to Newcastle Falcons.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
How key Waratahs playmakers could reshape Joe Schmidt's Wallabies backline

Yeah like a classic comedy show, not too different to how he went at the same venue last year? Perhaps there’s something about that latitude that puts his equilibrium off?


The rush on Jo was fine though, you’d catch most players out with Dmacs ex3cution of it. There were actually quite a few instances like that, not too dissimilar to that Bledisloe game actually, were things just didn’t work out for no luck of trying to skill. I laughed when Dmac took himself out of that try and basically gifted it to them by trying to bowl over Kellaway was perhaps the most comical.


Actually now you say that, yes, very reminiscent of Aus v England wasn’t it. The two changes at halves have been instrumental for me. Not that the first two weren’t playing well, but these two seem to pair up better, with everyone. Like you say with those sorts of counter attack plays, they are on instinct and that stuff needs to be shared with everyone. That’s another thing too I was thinking, in that respect guys returning can be a hinderance to a team playing well, but I might have just thought that because I wasn’t sure (hadn’t seen much) which of NSWs midfields were best suited where.


I’m very similar in my TMO preference as well. I had actually said to myself several times already this season (SR here) that they are pretty bullish basically telling the ref what theyve seen as fact. If I remember rightly it even happened a few times in November and some of the refs then said “no, I’m actually happy with that.” etc. But very tough on Maybe (I think) who probably has plss poor vision on the big screen to say anything otherwise, so yes, definitely just make it an offer to look and also communicate ‘why’ precisely to the ref, and (just like he does to the players) he can even say to the TMO “no I was happy how I saw it live, I don’t need a replay thanks” etc. He started like that I think, “I’d like to review a simultaneous grounding” but then yes, he took over after. Of course in the refs minds, it’s the right call, thoughts how it’s always been ref’d, even when theres a good few frames in the slowmo that actually show ball obviously hitting grass first (which they didn’t in this game), they’ve always ruled that (like in cricket) if the ball continues to then be ground on the line after (or in the same frame in this example) they always gone ‘dead ball’. The new SR committee apparently what to making the line the attacking teams so they award the try’s instead of taking them away, but just like I said with them not wanting to look closely at the first forward pass (like they did for the Chiefs try), I don’t want random JRLO level decisions, and giving the line to the attacking team is just going to make clear no trys, a try instead. It’s exactly the same result.

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