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Worcester confirm signing of their third 2021 Lions squad member
By Liam Heagney
Ambitious Gallagher Premiership club Worcester have confirmed their signing of a third member of Warren Gatland's 2021 Lions tour party, communications executive Luke Broadley arriving at Sixways as Jonathan Thomas' new team manager of a squad that will feature new signings Duhan van der Merwe and Rory Sutherland.
It was last January when South African van der Merwe, who qualified for Scotland under the three-year residency rule, was unveiled as a new-season signing and he was followed to Worcester from Edinburgh by front-rower Sutherland, whose deal was confirmed on July 1 while in South Africa with the Lions.
Broadley had been the long-serving communications manager for the Wales national team, serving under Gatland for numerous years before signing off with the 2021 Six Nations campaign which culminated in a title success for Wayne Pivac. He now fills the void left at Worcester by Mark Hewitt, who stepped down at the end of the 2019/20 season as team manager.
"One of the huge things we are driving is the Warriors family," explained Thomas about the recruitment of his fellow Welshman. "It’s not just a place of work for players. We want the players to truly feel that they belong here and their families are happy.
"We want to make it a collaboration and connection between players, families, supporters and all the different departments within the club. We want to make it one big family because if people feel that they belong and they are happy they are going to give more on the field.
"Luke’s appointment as team manager is a huge one for us. He has got great experience. He has just come back from the Lions, he has been involved in high performing teams for a number of years albeit in a different role but from the conversations I have had with people about Luke he has always gone above and beyond in his role.
"When we interviewed him Luke was an outstanding candidate and he is someone we think will add huge value to what we are trying to do off the field around our family and everything that the team manager role entails."
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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