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All Blacks legend Brad Thorn on the family bond that led to Test coaching debut
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Fissler Extra: Danny Care's future in focus as Ben Youngs takes new job
By Neil Fissler
Veteran Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care is getting ready for his 20th season in professional rugby, but don’t rule him out of continuing to play until 2026 as he continues to defy Old Father Time and the ageing process.
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The whispers are that Care, who is releasing his autobiography later this year, will be playing past his 38th birthday next January and has an option for the 2025/26 campaign written into the contract he signed last season.
It is understood that Care, who is keen to play for as long as possible, had a clause inserted when Bayonne earlier this year made a last-ditch attempt to derail Quins’ bid to keep the holder of their club appearance record.
England, and British and Irish Lions second row Jonny Hill has this week returned to pre-season training with Sale Sharks but won’t be fit for the start of the Gallagher Premiership season against Harlequins later this month.
Hill, 30, the nephew of former rugby league international Paul Loughlin, has been out of action since January when he ruptured his patella tendon in an Investec Champions Cup tie with La Rochelle, which caused his move to Lyon to fall through.
He could return in either the trip to Saracens in the second round of games or the third-round visit to Salford by Gloucester. Another knee injury victim, No.8 Dan du Preez, is also scheduled to return at the same time.
Vannes will make their historic bow in the Top 14 this weekend when they entertain Top 14 champions, and title favourites Toulouse at the 11,865-capacity Stade de la Rabine on Saturday evening.
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Vannes’ promotion has captured the imagination of the Breton public. 50,000 people crashed the website when season tickets went on sale, and every game is guaranteed to sell out even though they are favourites for relegation.
When the Pro D2 champions held their last public training session last Saturday, hundreds of fans flooded their doors to watch the two-and-a-half-hour session before the finalised preparations away from prying eyes.
England’s most capped men’s player and successful podcaster, Ben Youngs, will combine playing this season with working for his former school, Gresham’s, after being appointed as their new Head of Performance Sport.
Former Lions scrumhalf Youngs, who will be 35 tomorrow, admitted earlier this summer that he had heart surgery this year after collapsing during an open training session with Premiership side Leicester Tigers.
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Gresham’s, a school in Holt on the North Norfolk coast, has asked Youngs “to set new standards in performance sport” by “nurturing high-performance athletes across a range of disciplines.”
Brive scrum-half Leo Carbonneau is in the middle of a tug-of-war between arch-rivals in the French capital Racing 92 and Stade Francais, who are keen to sign him up for the 2025/26 campaign.
The pair have both got a scrumhalf on their shopping list, and our friends at Midi Olympique say France U20 international Carbonneau, 19, who is under contract until 2026, is the man that they both want to sign.
They are both prepared to pay a fee to release Pau-born Carbonneau, whose father Philippe won back-to-back Grand Slams with France in 1997 and 1998, from the final year of his contract.
Doncaster Knights have had a busy summer in the transfer market as Joe Ford prepares to launch a bid for Championship success this season, and there appears to be no letting up in their recruitment.
The word is that Ford is understood to be keen on making a cross-code raid for Samoa Rugby League international and Hull FC centre Carlos Tuimavave, who was once voted one of the best young players in the world.
Auckland-born Tuimavave, 32, has played in the NRL for the New Zealand Warriors and the Newcastle Knights before moving to Hull in 2016, winning the Challenge Cup in his first two seasons at the club.
Montpellier new-boys Stuart Hogg and Billy Vunipola have already started to settle into life in the Top 14, according to their teammate Paul Willemse, who was speaking to the media in France earlier this week.
The South African-born French international lock says that the pair are already both using French to communicate with their teammates and believes that they will both strengthen last season’s Top 14 strugglers.
“They integrated super easily. They are already saying words in French. They are strong characters. They are not shy. They take matters into their own hands and do not hide,” he said.
France and Toulouse flanker Anthony Jelonch is back in training and hopes to return to action in three weeks after recovering from his latest injury blow.
Jelonch, 28, has suffered two serious knee injuries in the past 18 months but has now battled back from both and should be available for France again this autumn, provided he has no setbacks.
“I resumed training two weeks ago, and I cannot wait to get back out on the pitch within three weeks, I hope,” he told the French media earlier this week.
