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'He doesn't want to leave' - New revelation in Gareth Anscombe's Premiership transfer rumours
Cardiff first-five Gareth Anscombe does not want to give up his test ambitions with Wales in order to accomodate a move to the Premiership in England, according to Blues head coach John Mulvihill.
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The Rugby Paper revealed earlier this week that ambitious English club Bristol were interested in acquiring the services of the Kiwi-born 27-year-old, offering him a deal of £500,000-per-year to make the switch to the Bears, exceeding Anscombe’s current earning potential in Wales by at least £150,000 annually.
The move would rule Anscombe out of contention for international selection, as any foreign-based Welsh player must have 60 test caps to their name in order to still be eligible for the national side.
With just 26 appearances for Wales since his test debut in 2015, this year’s World Cup in Japan would act as Anscombe’s swansong from international rugby should he choose to take the contract offered by Bristol.
Fellow Premiership clubs Harlequins and Bath are also rumoured to be chasing a deal with Anscombe, as are Welsh club Ospreys, but Mulvihill is adamant his star man is staying put.
“He wants to play test rugby. He doesn’t want to leave,” he told the BBC.
“You’re never confident until you see a signature on a piece of paper but I think we’ll be very close. I don’t think he’s leaving Wales.
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“To be fair to him, I feel a bit sorry for Gareth. His name’s been touted about all over the place and that’s not from him. He’s one of the leaders in our group and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.
“This is his first club in Wales, all his mates play here, he lives in Cardiff, he’s happy here and his wife’s happy here in work.
“It’s up to him to make those final decisions but when we come down to those decisions it’s going to be based around the programme, and we’re currently the best team in Wales and performing the best this season.
“I don’t think he’d want to move away from that and he’s been a big part of our success. I’d say he’d want to stay.”
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Mulvihill’s comments come after current Scarlets and incoming Wales head coach Wayne Pivac, who coached Anscombe in New Zealand during the pair’s time at Auckland, told Wales Online that he hoped the playmaker stays in Wales to keep his test ambitions alive.
“From my point of view, I have coached Gareth before and he is an excellent player. We have seen that in recent times,” he said.
“I would like to see him remain. I have had a working relationship with Gareth in the past. Hopefully the decision he makes is that he remains in Wales and we have his services going forward.”
In a statement that will likely ease concerns held by both Pivac and Mulvihill, Bristol head coach Pat Lam, who coached Anscombe at Super Rugby level with the Blues in 2012, effectively ruled out signing his former player.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gareth Anscombe stay exactly where he is in Wales,” he told the BBC.
“I got three 10s next year [so] why would I pay that amount of money for someone else? I think we’ve been linked to [AJ] MacGinty, [Rhys] Priestland, [Danny] Cipriani. What I’ll say is it’s a great ploy by agents or others.”
Anscombe, after helping steer Wales to a Six Nations Grand Slam title last month, will now turn his attention to helping Cardiff secure a Pro14 play-offs spot, starting this week with a difficult away clash against Munster.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 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
4 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 comments