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Northampton sweating on Champions Cup ruling to solve prop crisis

By PA
(Photo by Nigel French/PA Images via Getty Images)

Northampton have been plunged into a prop injury crisis ahead of Sunday’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Exeter and are desperately seeking emergency assistance. Manny Iyogun, 19, is currently Saints’ only fit and available loosehead option for the Sandy Park showdown.

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Francois van Wyk, Alex Waller, Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi and Nick Auterac have all been ruled out of the game through injuries of varying severity. Saints have been in dialogue with tournament organisers European Professional Club Rugby for permission to recruit another loosehead for their matchday 23.

But just four days before the game, Northampton rugby director Chris Boyd says he is still waiting for an answer. Competition rules mean that quarter-finalists had to register their squad on or before September 1, so an exemption would be required.

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Boyd said: “Francois Van Wyk was our only fit loosehead (before last weekend’s Premiership loss at Leicester), and Manny Iyogun would be the only (other) person in our club who could play at loosehead. That concerned us because Manny is a 19-year-old boy who played all his football at No8 and had never really played in a men’s scrum before.

“We approached EPCR about our plight, then the problem got significantly worse because Francois was injured on Sunday (against Leicester and was replaced by Iyogun) and is probably out for eight-12 weeks. We now faced a situation where we have a youngster with zero experience, so we went back to EPCR and pleaded our case again.

“The wheels have moved extremely slowly internally there, and currently we have still no ruling from EPCR. You eliminate people who can’t come into the country because of Covid restrictions around isolation, and visa applications which can’t be done in time, and the pool of players we could potentially get is pretty small anyway.”

Boyd said that he looked at converting one of the club’s specialist tighthead props into a loosehead, with a scrum session held early on Tuesday morning. But he added: “That was spectacularly unsuccessful. I spoke to Ben Franks (former Northampton and New Zealand prop) about that, and he likened it trying to play golf, changing from right hand to left hand.

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“None of our four tightheads have ever played loosehead prop, so that was ruled out. We would be hopeful that common sense would prevail. If it was a wing or full-back or something else, you just have to make do, but there is a considerable safety issue here and an issue on the spectacle as it is and what the game might look like.

“If common sense doesn’t prevail, we only have two choices that I can get my head around. One is that we don’t have a loosehead prop on the bench and we only play the match with 22 blokes. Or, we put somebody on the bench who is absolutely not capable of playing that position safely and at the time they are required to go on the field, we alert the officials to that and we go down to uncontested scrums”.

Boyd outlined an exhaustive search by Saints to try and find a suitable front row recruit. “We have rung the Scottish clubs, the Irish clubs, the Welsh clubs and every English Championship club,” he said. “We’ve had all sorts of people flinging their CV in front of us.

“Everyone either has Covid restrictions or visa restrictions. We’ve even looked at who has retired from the game in the last three years who might be floating around doing nothing. All of that is in vain if we can’t get EPCR approval. What I am absolutely not prepared to do – and it became very obvious when we tried to convert our tightheads – is risk someone’s safety.

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“While the integrity of the fixture and the competition is critical, the number one priority is the safety of the person that has to do that. There have been discussions between Exeter and Northampton to try to make this work. It’s an on-going discussion.”

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j
john 20 minutes ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

13 Go to comments
A
Adrian 2 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

13 Go to comments
T
Trevor 5 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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B
Bull Shark 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

29 Go to comments
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