JRugby2
Cyril Towers (30)
Can moonlight with his twin on Bondi VetChristy has Matt Phillip signing with the tahs for next year, which lines up with Payto's mail that he's returning to Aus:
Can moonlight with his twin on Bondi VetChristy has Matt Phillip signing with the tahs for next year, which lines up with Payto's mail that he's returning to Aus:
Inevitable. As it is with any sports side in the world.Much needed tall timber for the 'Tahs. Must be happy to come home to Sydney. He's a huge upgrade on Grant/Sinclair/Amatosero.
All these positive news stories make me suspicious we're going to lose some people soon.
If you look at it from a squad upgrading over time I tend to think a guy like Sinclair as much of a workhorse as he is could be on the told to look elsewhere list. Sports cruel like that but a journeyman type at 33 next year...
I used to not really rate Hugh Sinclair but he has been an excellent servant of the club and his rugby has improved significantly. I don't know anything specific but he does strike me as the kind of player who will remain here as long as he has a contract. If he's willing to fall back into being a depth piece on an equivalent contract then I'd be keen to keep him.
His versatility being able to cover lock, 6 and 8 increases his value in my view and he seems like an excellent culture guy.
I wouldn't be gutted as much as I like him. I think there is talent in the system at Centre. O'Donnell has shown he's up to the standard and from what Iv'e seen of him coming through and in the trials Jackson Ropata can't be far off a debut. I still expect to see JAS get time in the Centres at some stage. Foketi is likely to receive healthy offers from overseas clubs that are going to be almost impossible to match when he doesn't seem in Test contention at the moment.Very hard to build a squad without the guys like Sinclair. He's probably close to the best value player in the squad in terms of return on his contract spend, and lock is one of the better positions to have that. It's also doubtful he'd be getting big money offers overseas at this stage, so unless he really wants a retirement stint overseas for the last few years of his career you'd expect him to sign on again for another couple of years to finish things out.
The bigger danger for loses is a guy like Foketi - has fallen right down in the wallabies pecking order and is fast running out of time to push his case. Given the time it's probably going to take to get the tahs backline humming it'll be an uphill battle when he makes it back on the field. He probably only has one really big contract left in him at his age and if he doesn't have RA interested in topping him up the Japanese/Euro options may be too hard for him to ignore.
Yeah, there's a lot of talent there about to come through which doesn't help his case. I also really rate Ripley on potential, if he can get on the park for an extended period (seems a bit unlikely at this point though).I wouldn't be gutted as much as I like him. I think there is talent in the system at Centre. O'Donnell has shown he's up to the standard and from what Iv'e seen of him coming through and in the trials Jackson Ropata can't be far off a debut. I still expect to see JAS get time in the Centres at some stage. Foketi is likely to receive healthy offers from overseas clubs that are going to be almost impossible to match when he doesn't seem in Test contention at the moment.
Christy has Matt Phillip signing with the tahs for next year, which lines up with Payto's mail that he's returning to Aus: