All idle speculation but Quins will have to trim the squad along with the all other teams next year. I imagine some will be picked up by the 14th Prem team when they get promoted:
Already rumoured that Tizard to Sarries and Symons to retire.
Obviously those out of contract this summer are most at risk of leaving
I could also see Joe Gray retiring along with possibly Ross Chisholm.
Other players who might go:
Wilco: Clear 1st choice but haven’t heard mention of contract renewal and Quins might view Collier & Kerrod as very decent cheaper alternatives
Paul Lasike: just back from long term injury but a long way down pecking order, could see a club in France being interested
Huw Jones: only joined Quins because deal at Bayonne didn’t happen due to relegation - speculation at time if they got promoted he’d join them next season
SGB or Jordan Els (think one will be kept) must be nearing end of contract and emergence of Fin Baxter
Craig Trenier; no where near 1st team, 4th choice with sting academy options
Aaron Morris: a long way down pecking order, could imagine 14th Prem team next season might be interested
Archie White: not in 1st team consideration and good academy options
Luke Wallace: maybe will look to use academy player to fill back up role he currently has
All speculation and all conceivably could stay! (& be in contract anyway) Quins strength recently has been that when a player has been injured the replacement has been of high quality. Also training clearly benefits from high quality squad. However all teams will be trimming playing staff next season.
I’m not sure there’s that level of ‘trimming’ to do. Quins were pretty clearly one of the clubs pushing for the cap reduction and didn’t rush to sign players ahead of the deadline so only 75% of their salaries counted over that contract. We’ve shed a lot of experience over the last two summers and are routinely playing academy players in the starting XV. I think many of those squad adjustments may have already happened.
Interesting take, Somardino.
Thinking on it, Quins have played their cards pretty close to their chest but there are a few things we do know:
- They’ve shed a number of senior players and the replacements have tended to be at a cheaper point in their career (with a couple of exceptions)
- They’ve made use of the extended Academy cap - e.g. keeping Kenningham on an Academy contract for now
- They’ve stopped publicising the length of their contracts. We know Quins were one of the earlier clubs to move to 3 year contracts for some key players, but now they just talk about “long term contracts”
- Tabai Matson is reputedly on a regular employment contract rather than a fixed term one.
Maybe reading too much into this, but one possibility is that at least some players are now on long term contracts that might have some sort of mechanism to mitigate for the changes in the salary cap - e.g. a provision that reduces salaries while the cap is reduced and then takes them back up afterwards.
I guess we shall see over the next few months.
I vaguely recall DC saying something on a BBC podcast about players agreeing to a wage cut.
I vaguely recall DC saying something on a BBC podcast about players agreeing to a wage cut.
IIRC the cut was for the period of playing behind closed doors. The biggest concern for me is retaining our bright academy crop as expectations exceed the extended academy salary cap. If rumours are true this is already happening with Hugh Tizard.
I’m not sure there’s that level of ‘trimming’ to do.
I don’t believe all will go, more these are the players who might leave
The danger with too ,JHC trimming is the amount of games played in a season if you don’t count internationals it’s already too many, scrap the Micky mouse Prem cup would be my suggestion but Prem Rugby won’t want to lose the money from it.
I thought the Prem cup this year was basically the A League??
Next year (was meant to be this year) there is a new Soooopa Dooooopa A League involving English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Italian Teams. (I was looking forward to it this year)
SGB, Morris, Wallace, Ross Chisholm, Lasike, Trenier, Gray.
We could get rid of all of them and not really need to worry about replacing them other than promoting from Academy
SGB, Morris, Wallace, Ross Chisholm, Lasike, Trenier, Gray.
We could get rid of all of them and not really need to worry about replacing them other than promoting from Academy
I'd agree with most of that, though Wallace, Chisholm and Gray are probably close to retirement anyway, and we haven't really seen enough of Trenier to form a judgement (and he's not likely to be on big money).
Lasike, though, I think we should hang onto if he returns to fitness. We can't rely on Esterhuizen to be available all the time, and Quins play much better with a big carrier at 12 than with a lighter player. Jones could possibly do that role - but there are rumours that his contract is short term.
I'd agree with most of that, though Wallace, Chisholm and Gray are probably close to retirement anyway, and we haven't really seen enough of Trenier to form a judgement (and he's not likely to be on big money).
Lasike, though, I think we should hang onto if he returns to fitness. We can't rely on Esterhuizen to be available all the time, and Quins play much better with a big carrier at 12 than with a lighter player. Jones could possibly do that role - but there are rumours that his contract is short term.
Yeah. I’d agree with that. Lasike is nowhere near as good as Andre (particularly from a distribution and defensive POV), but keeping him would give us a bit more continuity from a playing style perspective.
Then again Hyde is well regarded and is at the bigger end of the spectrum for a centre, but I can’t speak from any experience of watching him play other than some Ireland U20 highlights.
Hydes been getting plenty of game time with L Scottish this season
Centre's i'm not worried about so Lasike next season wouldn't be a big loss.
I'm sure we would have Jones for another season, so that's some cover at 12. We also have Marchant/Northmore, and then theres a few academy prospects, so that's plenty.
I'd want to hold onto Lasike. Inexpensive and while he's not the complete player by any means, his gain line work is great. He's probably more effective coming off the bench but there were numerous times in his first season that we played a 9-12 when 5 metres out and scored. Every defence knew it was coming but none of them could stop it - very useful to have, as well as using him as a decoy.
Agree x 2
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