Six more depart Scottish

Rothman2 wrote: I see Ben Thomas has signed for us today for the rest of the season. Any views on him from our Scottish friends?

Will you accept a view from a non-Scottish friend? He came to Esher from London Welsh about 3 or 4 years agobut didn't do well enough to earn a contract. He then reappeared at Barking in National 1 in the season they nearly got promoted and then switched to Scottish who had got promoted. Unless he has improved significantly I doubt he'll add a lot.

Apart from Liffchak and Kellard does anyone know if messrs Strachan, Lonergan, Bloomberg and Clarke (no  they are not a firm of solicitors) have signed for anyone yet?

Cheers Mark.

GR Blue, was under the impression that some of the players were pro? Obviously not the whole squad, but thought people like GG and Sacha were? (sacha even describes himself as a professional on his twitter page)

mdg99 While Sacha might state that he is a professional, that still doesn't mean that Bedford are full time. It is his and others players like GG's decision not to work.

So how does Pritchard earn his living away from rugby? He seems to get an inordinate amount of time off playing for Canada in the RWC, Churchill Cup and other Canadian Tour games.

Perhaps Pritchard can, due to being one of the highest paid players, as he is an experienced and quality player? If Blues didn't pay him enough be wouldn't be with us!

How come Blues also have an unbeaten and probably the best non-RFU funded academy team who have beaten the likes of Tigers and Saracens? Perhaps it because of the good coaching set up we have.

As you say if some players do have other jobs, how can they be anything but part-time, a team cannot train as a team if not all the team is there? I think one of the biggest differences is that most of our players are of a similar standard, so they have to perform well on the pitch otherwise there is another waiting. Whereas some other sides do not have as strong a squad.

I believe full-time teams probably do not spend that much more time on the pitch than a part time team. As players can only train so much before the quality becomes poor as players become tired.

Don't get me wrong GR I am not criticising, I was part of the Academy for two years, and I can attest to the quality of coaching. I definitely improved massively as a player. What was even better was having players such as Dan Richmond, Ian Vass and GG involved in the coaching. 

knightandday wrote: Nearly Christmas, you know when the annual 'Are Bedford full or part time' debate arises it's that time of year.

...and by hijacking a completely different thread.

Certainly many of the full time professional squads are significantly under achieving in comparison.