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Falcons confirm Mermoz signing


Maxime Mermoz in training with Leicester Tigers
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Centre Maxime Mermoz has agreed a move to Newcastle Falcons at the end of the season, despite making his Leicester Tigers debut just last week.

The 30-year-old joined Leicester at the start of February from Toulon, after a highly successful career in France.

Mermoz won two European Champions Cups and a Top 14 title with Toulon, plus a further two French domestic championships with Toulouse and Perpignan.

Signed as short-term injury cover for the Tigers’ Matt Toomua and Manu Tuilagi, the France international scored a try within half an hour of his debut against Gloucester last weekend.

Mermoz has been capped 35 times for his country and boasts 167 appearances in the French top flight.

Newcastle Falcons’ director of rugby Dean Richards told their official website: “Maxime’s signing is a major statement of intent for Newcastle Falcons.

“We have been working hard over a long period of time to make this move happen.

“The fact that he will spend the back half of this season with Leicester Tigers is ideal in the sense that he will already be accustomed to Aviva Premiership rugby by the time he arrives with us in the summer, and we are excited by what he will bring to the group.”

Mermoz added: “I am really happy to join the Falcons and I have been attracted by the ambitious plans of this historic club, which was the starting point of my former team-mate and legend Jonny Wilkinson.

“I expect to share my experience and bring my contribution to achieve the ambitious goals of the team. But I also come to learn and experience something new.

“This is a big challenge, but really exciting and motivating. I love it, I feel grateful and want to pay back the trust shown in me by Newcastle Falcons.”

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PC 28 minutes ago
Is the magic thread of Super Rugby in need of a new pattern?

An Eight team NPC is the perfect size domestic competition for NZ. The problem Australia faces is a problem that it has faced for all of its modern history. The tyranny of distance. The tyranny of distance makes professional rugby an expensive proposition. The tyranny of distance has meant that whilst NSW and Qld were the traditional powerhouses of Rugby in Australia the rest of the country broadly speaking played another sport entirely. Super Rugby ever since its inception has been trying to square this circle. The old fashioned state based system, a by product of the colonial era might suit cricket but it doesn’t suit a football code trying to grow a national footprint. As I see it. Rugby needs to mirror NZ’s NPC. Create a national competition based not around some historic happenstance but where Rugby’s market actually exists or seeks to be. An Eight team based competition featuring 2 Sydney based teams, North and South of the Harbour. 2 Brisbane based teams and 4 others.

Rugby could then supplement this concept with cross tasman fixtures, state of origin fixtures etc as needs or the market dictates. There would be no shortage of product to sell to the media but the biggest selling point in any negotiations surely would have to be the concept of a national competition full of rivalry’s, tribalism etc scheduled at a time and a place that suits its market and not someone else’s. Cross Tasman fixtures would be the icing on the cake not the cake itself.



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