Agen confirm they have signed Gabriel Ibitoye
Top 14 club Agen have confirmed they have secured the signature of Harlequins’ Gabriel Ibitoye in time for the September start of the 2020/21 season.
The Gallagher Premiership winger is the French club’s second recruit from England in recent weeks after they also snapped up the services of Noel Reid, one of the Leicester players who opted to leave Welford Road rather than accept a 25 per cent salary cut.
Delighted to finally conclude business with Ibitoye, Agen tweeted: “We can finally formalise the arrival of the young English nugget Gabriel Ibitoye in Agen for two seasons!
“This latest high-quality recruit completes our ambitious and promising recruitment of this off-season!”
Club president Jean-Francois Fonteneau has been recruiting ambitiously in the hope of improving a side that was placed 13th, in one of the relegation spots, when the 2019/20 season was cancelled due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Vous l'attendiez, c'est maintenant officiel !
Bienvenue @_gabs11 ! https://t.co/ikMKcQUgNd
— Agen Rugby – SUA LG (@agen_rugby) July 28, 2020
A 22-year-old Londoner, Ibitoye had demonstrated his pedigree at England U20s level and was impressing as part of the set-up at Harlequins, scoring 14 tries in 40 appearances for the club. It was his performance versus Clermont last November in the Champions Cup in France that apparently brought him to the attention of Agen.
His loss to Harlequins ahead of the restart of the suspended 2019/20 Premiership will be covered by the return to action at The Stoop of fit-again Nathan Earle, who had been absent with a long-term knee injury.
Ibitoye’s move to France will shelve his hopes of gaining England Test level selection as players can’t be selected if they are based outside the country.
Speaking to RugbyPass in March 2019, shortly after he had extended his Harlequins deal for the 2019/20 season, the uncapped Ibitoye said: “I spoke to Paul (Gustard, the Harlequins boss) and we have a plan of where we think I’m heading.
“He seemed like the right man to help my progress as efficiently and as quickly as possible to where I want to be in a few years’ time, so it was an easy decision to make in the end.
“The goal for everyone young rugby player is to represent their country. That is the ultimate goal for me, to represent England and win the World Cup, but there is a lot of small stepping stones I have got to take before eventually doing that.
“I need to be cementing a starting spot at Harlequins and becoming a big player for them. That will come first and then playing consistently week in and week out to catch Eddie Jones’ attention, that will put me in a good position to be able to represent my country.
'If you had said to me in that moment I would play until I was 35 I would have called you an idiot'
In 2005 @marklambert3 was told he'd never play rugby again. 250 @Harlequins caps later, he talks to @heagneyl ??? https://t.co/Ik7Ml8YK7f
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 26, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments