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Welsh exodus continues with Dillon Lewis moving to the Premiership
The exodus of players from the regions in Wales continued on Tuesday with Cardiff tighthead Dillon Lewis joining Harlequins in the Gallagher Premiership. The announcement comes just eight days after Exeter announced their capture of Ospreys’ Joe Hawkins.
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While there are doubts about the continued availability of Hawkins for Test team selection as his tally of five caps is well below the revised quota of 25 for players based outside Wales, there is no threat to the availability of Lewis as he last month won his 50th cap.
A statement read: “Harlequins are delighted to announce the signing of Dillon Lewis from Cardiff Rugby ahead of the 2023/24 season. Tighthead prop Lewis, 27, earned his 50th cap for Wales against France in this year’s Guinness Six Nations, and joins an experienced front row contingent at Harlequins supporting a strong contingent of academy players establishing themselves into the 1st XV.
“Growing up playing for Pontypridd, Lewis made his Cardiff debut against Wasps in the Anglo-Welsh Cup in 2014 and has gone on to represent his club 88 times. Lewis was part of the Wales U20 squad which won a Six Nations Grand Slam in 2016 and went onto be part of the 2019 senior squad who achieved a clean sweep in the Guinness Six Nations.
“He earned his first cap off the bench for Wales against Tonga in 2017 and has since firmly established himself on the international scene.”
"Head knocks are unavoidable, and people need to accept that. I see so many things that are rugby incidents" @samwarburton_ talks to @heagneyl 👨💻 on cards, Freddie Steward's red, the regions, Maro Itoje's form and more #rugby https://t.co/2LPhm3EimG
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 26, 2023
“I am over the moon to have signed here and can’t wait to get going in the summer. I’m looking forward to meeting the boys and playing at The Stoop,” said Lewis, adding that the attraction of switching to Harlequons was: “Their brand of rugby and also seeing the culture and environment off the field as well. I’m excited to have the opportunity to work with Adam Jones and the likes of Joe Marler and Will Collier. I have big aspirations to improve as a player.”
Assistant coach Jones, who briefly spent time at Cardiff with Lewis, added: “I first saw him playing for the Cardiff academy eight years ago and I could immediately see that he was going to be a really good player.
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“He joins a really talented pool of props at Harlequins and with great competition for places, they will push each other on. I look forward to welcoming Dillon in the summer and helping him develop his scrummaging to perform for Quins and Wales.”
Harlequins later on Tuesday also announced the signing of Jarrod Evans, Lewis’ club and country colleague. He has eight Test caps and has played for Cardiff 126 times since debuting in 2015.
Evans said: “I’m really looking forward to coming up here. It’s a massive club with a great style of play. One of the things that really attracted me was playing in this league and I am looking forward to challenging myself.”
Harlequins attack coach Nick Evans added: “We are all excited to welcome Jarrod into our environment to add to the talent we have in the fly-half stable. Jarrod is an extremely exciting player with attributes to add to the Quins identity and style.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
All I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
169 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
169 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
169 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
169 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
169 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the deportation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
169 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
3 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
169 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
169 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
169 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
169 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
169 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
169 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
169 Go to comments