He looks a very handy signing for Leinster and Madigan will have to be on his toes if he wants to start heineken games. Gopps made a great break to set up Kearney for his try. However (and I realise I'm being quite critical) he should have trusted Madigan to make the tackle which came before the beck try, Gopperth might not have stopped Beck regardless but if he hadn't forced himself to turn around to make it he had a better chance.

So now we are getting to see this man in Pro 12 action and i am really impressed. Not a bad replacement for sexton and Madigan will have it tough to make starting 10. This is in the wrong thread now i know lads if anybody wants to move it.

www.espnscrum.com/premiership-2011-12/rugby/story/157140.html

Newcastle say that he is keen to stay and Toby Booth is really after him. I thought he might be worth a shot but a move to the Exiles would surely be more tempting than either staying in Newcastle or moving over here.

For what it's worth, I'd have Parks in the team in a second

its_phil wrote:

FACECUTTR wrote: True but i think i read somewhere that the men with the money put their hands up and admitted they dropped the ball with recruitment for this season.Hopefully they can learn from this and get it together for next season and beyond.

The focus for year one was on facilities & structure and year two was recruitment.

Sorry but I don't buy that at all. We have made great progress in facilities etc. which should be applauded.

However, look at the players who are contracted to us for next season, we are stuck with a lot of very poor quality players on our books for next season. That indicates to me plainly that recruitment was poor and it wasn't part of some big plan to get things in order off the field and then on the field. If this season was going to be a stop gap we'd have got a lot of the players we did on 1 year deals. There was hardly a queue around the block waiting to sign a lot of the players we brought in during the summer. We might get 1 or 2 decent players in the summer but we need a lot more than that to be competitive over a season.

FACECUTTR wrote: True but i think i read somewhere that the men with the money put their hands up and admitted they dropped the ball with recruitment for this season.Hopefully they can learn from this and get it together for next season and beyond.

The focus for year one was on facilities & structure and year two was recruitment.

which is why a dan parks or his equivelent is a more realistic target.

incidently if we had a player of parks calibre now we wud prob have 3 wins in hec and be above or level wit ulster in pro12!

The only way a conversation gets started between Connacht and Gopperth is if Connacht are in the HEC. Playing in the Rabo and Amlin in the west of Ireland wouldn't even be enough to lure him away from a relegated Newcastle. He'll surely have signed a new contract somewhere before Connacht have a chance to slip back in the HEC door on the coattails of one of the other provinces. IMO this uncertainty hurts their recruiting of some players unless, as simpleton said, they are willing to pay above market value for their services.

Not at all, but it's an indication of where we stand in the minds of players. We need to fix that.

And Eric know's that. He may not have got anywhere with Stanley, but I was impressed with the ambition to change things.

ummm, wrote: Having the cash is one thing (and we don't even have that) but we need to change players attitudes towards us before we can be successful in landing bigger names.

We can have all the dosh in the world and we'll still be that 4th province that is always in the Amlin and bottom of the Pro12.

We had the cash for Benson Stanley, we couldn't convince him to come (conspiracy theories aside.)

because Stanley wouldn't come, does not mean every other player wouldn't come either

Having the cash is one thing (and we don't even have that) but we need to change players attitudes towards us before we can be successful in landing bigger names.

We can have all the dosh in the world and we'll still be that 4th province that is always in the Amlin and bottom of the Pro12.

We had the cash for Benson Stanley, we couldn't convince him to come (conspiracy theories aside.)

rossie wrote: i think gopparth will be in big demand at end of season. Newcastle have always had one big money player for as long back as i can think. They always managed to hold on to jonny wilkinson in spite of interest from bigger clubs.

Its one thing aiming high and im sure the branch do when initially identifying potential recruits but to get them your club needs decent profile and offer decent money. We prob will be lacking on both counts.hence we end up wit players we have.[/quote]

No disrespect to any of our 10's (abusing players is not how I go about it), but if you put Nick Evans (example) at 10 in our team its possible we would be challenging for a 1/4 final, we'd have beaten quins, gloucester (twice), maybe we'd have been closer to Toulouse than we were.

maybe we should find the money to stump up for one or two of those guys, instead of some "squad fillers"

ummm, wrote: The problem there would be we'd have to jettison one of our IE out halves for an NIE out half. Not sure the IRFU would give their approval for that.

We supposedly have "private franchise" status, so what's a polite way of saying "bite me"? :evil:

Problem I see is not our ambition to sign this standard of player,it's how much above market value will we have to pay to convince them to come to us.

There are plenty of suiters for gooperth in the Uk, they offer higher profile, more money, closer to home and potential for success etc so unless we get lucky and the idea appeals to his adventuring spirit then it's highly unlikely. Far more realistic to pick up an aging pro where we can offer a longer deal than other would.

The problem there would be we'd have to jettison one of our IE out halves for an NIE out half. Not sure the IRFU would give their approval for that.

Gopperth would definitely be the man I want stearing the ship next year

Finance could be an issue, I'm sure he's on good money at Newcastle, a team always with a marquee player or 2 like Wilkinson and Carl Hayman.

However, my argument would be he's probably worth the money, we're in the market for a marquee signing ourselves. Better to sign him and stump up the cash rather than to spend money on 2/3 squad players

i think gopparth will be in big demand at end of season. Newcastle have always had one big money player for as long back as i can think. They always managed to hold on to jonny wilkinson in spite of interest from bigger clubs.

Its one thing aiming high and im sure the branch do when initially identifying potential recruits but to get them your club needs decent profile and offer decent money. We prob will be lacking on both counts.hence we end up wit players we have.