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Callum Braley has decided his club future is best served in Italy
After six years at Gloucester, scrum-half Callum Braley will join Guinness PRO14 side Benetton at the end of the current season.
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Currently away on international duty with Italy, whom he qualifies for courtesy of his grandfather, Braley made his Six Nations bow in last Saturday’s game against Wales in Cardiff.
First capped last summer in Italy’s World Cup warm-up matches, he was a part of the squad that competed at the World Cup in Japan.
At club level, he moved to Kingsholm in summer 2014 from Bristol. He was an England age-group international from under-16 level upwards and skippered the successful England under-20s at the 2014 Junior World Championship.
He has been a regular in the Gloucester matchday squad, making his 100th appearance in the recent Heineken Cup home win over Connacht. However, he feels the time is right for him to move to Italy to play his club rugby alongside a number of his international team-mates.
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“It’s all happened fairly quickly. I hadn’t even trained with the Italy team twelve months ago, but now I’ve been to a World Cup and played in the Six Nations.
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“Having committed my international future to Italy, it makes sense to play my club rugby there and I’m very much looking forward to the new challenge. I’ve had six really enjoyable years at Gloucester. I’ve grown so much here, as a player and as a person, becoming a husband and a father and I’ve made some great friends and some fantastic memories.
“I’ll look back on my time here fondly. It’s a club and a city that my family hold closely to our hearts and a place we now call home. It probably won’t sink in until that final home game of the season when all the departing players get to say goodbye. But, until the very last minute of my last game, I’ll be giving everything to say goodbye on a positive note.”
So grateful to be out here in Japan ?? the Energy for the Rugby World Cup is mad, can’t wait for it all to kick off #RWC2019 @Federugby pic.twitter.com/Mr75QerCS0
— Callum Braley (@CallumBraley) September 19, 2019
Director of rugby David Humphreys said it will be a shame to see Braley leave, but he completely understood his reasons for doing so.
“Callum has been a valued member of our squad over the past few seasons, not just for his performances on the pitch but also his contribution to the wider squad effort where he has played a key role in driving standards on and off the pitch.
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“His dedication and hard work were rewarded in his selection for the World Cup with Italy and we were all delighted to see him starting for Italy last weekend in the Six Nations.
"I can understand there’s questions around it, it makes sense"
– @chrisjonespress reporting #WALvITA #SixNations ??https://t.co/dcCpowNsQ8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 1, 2020
“While we’re sorry to see him leave Gloucester at the end of the season, we fully understand his reasons for moving to Italy to play for Benetton and establish himself in the Italian national team.
“Callum will still have a big role to play for the rest of this season at Gloucester and we look forward to seeing him finish his time here on a high.”
WATCH: The Rugby Pod sets the scene ahead of the second round of the 2020 Guinness Six Nations
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