Saints and Bees deal

From the BBC

Northampton Saints set up Birmingham and Solihull link


Saints boss Jim Mallinder wants his youngsters to gain experience
Northampton Saints have set up a player link with Championship side Birmingham and Solihull ahead of the new season.
The deal will see Saints academy players made available to the Bees squad during the campaign.
In return the Birmingham and Solihull boss Russell Earnshaw will help coach the Northampton sevens squad.
Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder said: "Playing in the Championship will help our youngsters develop their understanding of rugby."
He added: "All of the coaches and management at the Saints firmly believe that playing rugby is the best way someone can develop.
     
For Birmingham and Solihull to be associated with Saints at such a stage in their history is truly a privilege
Birmingham and Solihull boss Russell Earnshaw
"But opportunities can sometimes be limited in the Premiership, which is why we have put this link with Birmingham and Solihull in place for the coming season."
The link is a huge boost for the West Midlands side who survived the relegation play-offs last season, despite finishing bottom of the table, at the end of a torrid campaign that almost saw them fold under monetary pressures.
Earnshaw said: "The progress Northampton have shown over the past few years is testimony to the excellent coaching and the winning culture that the coaching team have created.
"For Birmingham and Solihull to be associated with Saints at such a stage in their history is truly a privilege."

Get over it Squadron Leader .... what is your problem? Isn't it time you ditched your Sopwith Camel and modernised? Wake up and smell the coffee in the 21st Century.

Notts Straight

you bunch of old f*rts  read the passage carefully, we have a link up with Saints in order for youngsters to be given game time and it will only be good for English rugby when that happens.

Edited by SABees - 27 Jul 2010 at 06:11

If i was in Birmingham's position i would definitely do this......... that said, something doesnt feel quite right about DR relationships. 

A bit more info here.  Great news as far as I am concerned.

I think it was only a matter of time before Rugby took some more of the aspects of the English football structure.

"Nick Adams moving from French Top 14 club Montauban"

I thought Montauban had been chucked out of the T14 (financial problems) - has this changed?


Addendum: it would appear that Montauban have been demoted two leagues to Fédérale 1.

Edited by DaveH - 27 Jul 2010 at 12:24

IF you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Originally posted by cheshire exile Younger players may find their opportunities to play at levels 3-6[say] limited in this way and not everyone can be signed to Premiership Academies. An unavoidable consequence of professionalism?

Entirely avoidable if the RFU stops discriminating against young players that it doesn't deem potential red rose material. Why should one 19yr-old Academy player be allowed to keep game sharp by seeking out regular games at lesser clubs whilst waiting for the chance to play for his team, whilst his non-Academy peers are locked in, forced to decide between waiting for injuries or abandoning the hope of playing for his club?

Scrap D/R, or extend it to all U21s and boost young player retention across the game whilst evening the playing field.

Dear Billesley Nomad

Titan, loanees obviously will vary tremendously but as to DR players, by merit of who they are (i.e. England academy players and u23) while often very promising talents they are also young and inexperienced - one of the many reasons why I find some people's comments about them being "premiership" players feintly ridiculous. More to the point if they were that good they'd be playing regulalry in the Prem anyway.

BN and Cratch; the problem with the Bees Gloucs tie up was the cost to Bees, something in excess of £80k if my memory serves me right and not for that many players just the odd loanee. 

Originally posted by JohnT BN and Cratch; the problem with the Bees Gloucs tie up was the cost to Bees, something in excess of £80k if my memory serves me right and not for that many players just the odd loanee.    But moving on from that, the Bees tie up with Saints is more in what I understand the arrangement between Liecs and Notts and also between Mose and Gloucs and if I read the runes of the RFU (and I'm no expert here - other more learned may be) is very much the sort of arrangements they are looking to establish.  And IMO good for the development of players and the game in England given the current ecomnomic realities that some (players and Clubs) are still struggling to come to terms with.

Hi JT, hope that is rules and not a freudian slip regarding the RFU

As long as Clubs abide by the RFU rules on D/R I really don't see a problem.