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Cracknell becomes fifth player to recently sign for London Irish
The recent recruitment drive by London Irish continued on Tuesday with 27-year-old back-rower Olly Cracknell joining from Ospreys, the Welsh region he signed for in 2014. It was October 6 when the Premiership club announced the double signing of winger Cillian Redmond and tighthead Ciaran Parker.
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They then added Argentine pair, back-rower Juan Martin Gonzalez Samso and winger Lucio Cinti Luna, in recent weeks and now Cracknell becomes the latest player snapped up by the English top-flight club.
After making an Ospreys debut in 2015, Cracknell went on to make over 100 appearances for the Welsh outfit. He has previously represented Wales at U20s and was called up to the Welsh squad for the 2017 Six Nations.
Cracknell said: “I’m really pleased to be joining London Irish. It’s a great opportunity for me at a key period in my career. I have heard good things about the squad here and I’m looking forward to playing my part over the coming weeks and months.”
Irish boss Declan Kidney added: “We are pleased Olly has agreed to join us. He is a strong player who will add to the current options we have in the back row. We are looking forward to him joining the group and being part of our squad.”
'I wasn’t selected again and that was my Wallabies career done'@Rona1Curtis talks to @heagneyl ??? about @londonirish , leaving Australia, the NRL, why he prefers union to league & what actually went down between him and Michael Cheika in Wallabies camphttps://t.co/Bk10QMKsIC
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 31, 2021
Cracknell becomes the second back-rower to join the Irish since they confirmed on August 13 that the long-serving Blair Cowan had his surprise request to end his contract early granted so that he could pursue a new challenge in Japan.
“When Blair wasn’t going to be available through the season we went looking for the back rows that were available and it is a difficult time to recruit,” said Kidney in recent weeks when explaining the signing of Argentine back-rower Gonzalez Samso at a time when they also coincidentally lost Ben Donnell to injury. “That was always an opening that was created by Blair’s departure.”
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It's now two years since Ireland outcast Paddy Jackson first came to play for London Irish #Ireland #Irish #GallagherPrem #EXEvLIRhttps://t.co/4vQTGAW4Gj
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 21, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
While Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
126 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
126 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
126 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
5 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
5 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
126 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
3 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
4 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
4 Go to comments