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Gloucester swiftly replace Fraser Balmain with ex-England U20 prop

Ex-England U20s prop Alfie Petch (Getty Images)

Gloucester have moved for Biarritz tighthead Alfie Petch to fill the gap in their squad that will be left by Fraser Balmain’s departure for former Gallagher Premiership champions Saracens later this summer. RugbyPass exclusively revealed on Wednesday that Saracens boss Mark McCall is ready to make the former Leicester Tigers man Balmain his sixth signing ahead of next season.

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We now understand that the Cherry and Whites, who finished ninth in the 10-team 2023/24 Premiership after losing 13 of their 18 games, are poised to land the 24-year-old.

Educated at Ivybridge Community College near Plymouth, Petch started his career with the same Cornish club, Bude, as Phil Vickery, the 2003 England World Cup winner and British and Irish Lions tourist.

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Damian de Allende talks about the plaudits heaped on him by his teammates

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    Damian de Allende talks about the plaudits heaped on him by his teammates

    The former England U20 prop progressed into the Exeter Chiefs academy, making seven first-team appearances, and had a lengthy loan spell with Cornish Pirates to gain valuable experience before moving to Northampton Saints.

    Petch moved to the East Midlands with Chiefs teammate Aaron Hinkley in May 2022 and made 21 appearances in his only campaign at Franklin’s Gardens before switching to Biarritz, a surfer’s paradise on France’s Basque coast.

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    He played 14 games for the Pro D2 outfit. However, despite performing well, it was announced that he would be leaving when his contract ran out and was seeking a return to the Premiership as soon as possible.

    Petch will become George Skivington’s fourth new signing ahead of next season, following Welsh stars Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe, and former England international Christian Wade into Kingsholm.

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    Loosehead Harry Elrington, wingers Jonny May and Alex Hearle, fly-half Adam Hastings, and hookers Adam McBurney and Santi Socino are all on their way out of the club.

    • Gloucester confirmed later on Wednesday that they have indeed signed Petch. Click here to read what Skivington had to say about the deal
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    AlanCriner 16 minutes ago
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    A
    AlanCriner 16 minutes ago
    Louis Bielle-Biarrey named 2025 Guinness Six Nations Player of the Championship

    My name is Alan Criner, and I'm a resident of Toronto, CA. I'm a 45-year-old financial analyst who has always been cautious with my investments. However, in my quest to diversify my portfolio, I fell prey to a devastating fake crypto investment scam, losing 125,000 Canadian dollars' worth of Bitcoin. This traumatic experience sent my life into a downward spiral, leaving me depressed and feeling hopeless.

    Despite my repeated attempts to contact the account manager who initially approached me on Telegram, I was met with silence. They refused to provide any explanation or information, and I was locked out of my account on their website. The authorities were unable to assist me, as the scammers were untraceable.

    Just when I thought all was lost, my nephew, a Canadian government lawyer, introduced me to Morphohack Cyber Service, a reputable private investigator and crypto recovery company. I visited their website (www . morphohackcyber . com) and, after mustering the courage, contacted them. They listened attentively as I recounted my ordeal and educated me on the scam, revealing that numerous others had fallen victim to the same scheme.

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    JW 1 hour ago
    The raw data that proves Super Rugby Pacific is currently a cut above

    Your links are private if you were intending them to be shared.


    URC us doing very well with it’s competitiveness given that each group has it’s own salary caps and entirely different makeups, from clubs, to provinces, to franchises and regions. One group might be teams from the most populace country with the biggest rugby base while another the smallest, with the least amount of rugby players to chose from.

    On average, just about one SRP game every weekend has been decided in the last five minutes!

    I would also be interested in a average clock length (don’t need to go into the whole BIP hole) showing how long the last phases are taking (because one team is trying to still alter the match points outcome in some way) to complete before the game finally ends. I don’t know if its more common this year but in general I wonder if its a stat that can show how good games are/were?

    17.7%

    You really had the same reversed 10 points lead % as you had lead changes after the 75th?


    Some of these values while standing out numerically against each other have a much less correlative impact than some that tighter differences which might only stick out a small amount. While SRP’s ones might not necessarily be such examples (and here I’m still going off the basic principle that everyone knew this was happening, even though I was challenged about that assumption) they have had the advantage of the fixtures being were doctored even more than normal. In this instance its irrelevant whether they were doctored or not of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that there hasn’t been a lot of cross over of worst v best yet. Maybe it just feels like that because the worst are so much better this year? I definitely think that it is undeniable that all the bottom teams (that remain) have gotten better.


    So I would be very interested in another weight graph of the games still, but regardless I don’t think it’s fair for SRP to claim anything over the other leagues yet. Certainly as I have said numerous times about the Top 14, it’s sub par compared to what it’s billed up to be, but that is the only league in this group that has promotion and relegation, which is the antitheses of a competitive league, so a trade off there.


    Thank you very much for sharing your research though Dmitri, I hope you find another topic to get interested about!

    30 Go to comments
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