'It's not a case of that': Irish review wounding Cokanasiga loss
Declan Kidney hasn’t ruled out the possibility of Phil Cokanasiga rejoining London Irish sometime in the future after it was confirmed on Thursday that the 20-year-old had signed for Leicester Tigers for next season. The director of rugby had regularly spoken throughout the 2021/22 campaign about how the Exiles were becoming a place where young players didn’t have to leave in order to gain Test level selection with England.
Academy graduates exiting London Irish to become England internationals at rivals Gallagher Premiership clubs had been the established trend before Kidney was installed as the boss in March 2018. The likes of Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph and Joe Cokanasiga were among the list of youngsters who had quit Irish as they felt their representative level ambitions would be best served elsewhere.
That pattern appeared to have ended with the England squad selection this past year of the likes of Ollie Hassell-Collins, Chunya Munga, Tom Pearson and some others by Eddie Jones, who last week visited the London Irish training ground to run the rule over a contingent of prospects that now includes the viral star, Henry Arundell following his recent attention-grabbing try-scoring.
However, Phil Cokanasiga, the younger brother of Joe who switched to Bath to realise his England Test team ambitions, dented this progress being made by Irish when he was unveiled as a new Leicester Tigers signing for the 2022/23 season after making 17 appearances and scoring six tries over the course of the last three seasons where he also played a part in winning the Six Nations Grand Slam with the England U20s last summer.
“London Irish was my first professional club and it will always hold a place close to my heart,” said Cokanasiga in his brief leaving statement, but Kidney hasn’t ruled out the possibility of the youngster coming back to them at some future point. “You are going to win some and lose some,” he told RugbyPass about the battle to keep all of his squad’s youngsters happy and believing that they can make it with England via London Irish rather than elsewhere.
“Sometimes players can get frustrated if they are not getting enough time but Phil knew he had a pathway here with us and he will have his own reasons for that [joining Leicester], but it is not like he is running away from the club. You always know a player’s reaction as well then too when they are leaving, you know if they want to go because they really want to go. It’s not a case of that. We wish Phil well for the future and who knows about him coming back here in years to come.”
It was a May 2018 thrashing at The Rec when it hit Kidney square in the face about the calibre of talent that London Irish had developed for the benefit of other clubs. With their Premiership relegation already confirmed, the Exiles were thumped 63-19 at Bath, the club that had hoovered up the likes of Watson and numerous other Irish-nurtured stars. They vowed there and then to put a stop to the brain drain.
“There had been a complete drain leading into it when we started off over four years ago, we were wondering what was going on,” continued Kidney about the situation that had contributed to London Irish twice suffering relegation to the second tier in three seasons. “We went down and played Bath and Jonathan Joseph, Joe Cokanasiga was being talked a lot in terms of joining there too, Anthony Watson – you are just thinking that if London Irish over the years had managed to hang onto its younger players where would we sit now?
“Part of the yo-yo effect was why were players here and why did they leave? Part of the reason we identified was they needed players to look up to and so we had to bring in some senior players to it and even though some mightn’t have played as much as they wanted to, the effects of Sean O’Brien on the other members of the pack, it will be over the coming years that you will see that.
“In the back, you can see the effect that Waisake (Naholo) had on the likes of Ollie Hassell-Collins and these guys coming through so the legacy that you leave behind you as a senior player is also very impressive. They have done that and they [the youngsrers] now know more of what is expected of them.
“We have had a few fellas called into England camp over the last 18 months so it has shown that they don’t have to leave London Irish to get called into English camp, so we believe that with what we are developing within can be strong going forward in the future.
“When you started off four years ago you didn’t want to be talking about three and five and seven-year plans. You’d bore the pants off the fellas who were there but we are four years into it, our squad is becoming younger naturally but being younger is only one part of it, you have to be skilful and competitive and see then can you close the deal on something. That is what we are about.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Pick 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.
15 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
15 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
15 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
15 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
15 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
15 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
15 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to comments