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'It's not nice to see your name on that list' - Alex Lozowski's nightmare start to French adventure has come full circle
England’s Alex Lozowski started this year being named in a list of the worst signings in the Top 14, but is now battling with Lyon’s Julian Tuisova and Castres Benjamin Urdapilleta as the Player of the Month in France after kicking Montpellier into the European Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
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Lozowski’s dramatic change in fortunes has helped his struggling Montpellier team pull clear of the relegation zone with impressive wins over Agen, Clermont and leaders Toulouse and a quarter-final win over Benetton on Saturday would take their unbeaten run to five matches.
While their lowly Top 14 league position – they are 11th – means they cannot qualify for the Heineken Cup next season they could earn a spot by winning the Challenge Cup.
The England international is currently on a year long loan from Saracens and has become the first choice kicker with recent matches producing an impressive haul of points. There were 16 against Glasgow and Toulouse, 14 against Agen and 17 in the win over Clermont.
Back in January at the halfway point of the season the RugbyRama site asked fans to vote for the best and worst signings of the season with the popular Tops and Flops. Two Englishman made the Top 10 Flops, Lozowski, ranking third while Agen’s ex-Harlequins winger Gabriel Ibitoye – now at Montpellier – was at number No1.
Lozowski, who took over the kicking after Springbok Handre Pollard ruptured his ACL, said: “Montpellier had four players in that list of disastrous signings and I suppose when you have played for Saracens and arrive at a new club there is an expectation. We lost a lot of games and it’s not nice to see your name on that list. Now, with the Player of the Month nomination, it is because the team is playing well with a few wins and being named with the two other guys is a reflection of how the team has gone.
“It was never as bad as people thought before and now that I have been nominated it’s not because I am an amazing player again.
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“It has been much better with a good cohesion and confidence has come back into team. We had a lot of narrow losses and now we have hung for the wins and someone was saying that if matches lasted 75 mins we would be in fourth place in the Top14 table!
“Last minute losses are soul destroying and demoralising and we haven’t been far off and have now beaten Clermont and Toulouse. Those wins showed how good we can be and I have been doing a bit of the kicking which I wouldn’t normally do and we would rather Handre Pollard was fit. He is only a few weeks from being back.
'I was going through the motions at my club, put a huge amount of strain on my wife, my friends, my family, my teammates probably and it was definitely a massively tough period for me'https://t.co/y5JIFxoxeP
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 8, 2021
“We now have a chance of qualifying for the Heineken Cup by winning the Challenge Cup and the final eight matches are the big focus with six massively important games in the league and two in the Cup if we get to the final. I would be awesome to play in final and finish on a high and it would make up for the disappointing results earlier in the season. Everyone wants to play for the big prizes and we take the Cup seriously.”
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Opting for a loan spell in France took Lozowski out of consideration for England but he is keen to add to the five caps already collected. “I really want to finish the season strongly and I haven’t been back to the UK since playing Wasps in December and haven’t seen my family since September,” he added. “It will be great to have the band back together at Saracens with the guys returning from loans with other clubs. It will be the start of a new chapter.
“In terms of England selection, I will have to wait until I am back with Sarries and I will see where that takes me. “
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
28 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments