dolf_lundgren wrote:Recruitment is my concern. The players he will know well are likely to be based in England and France, which makes it hard to get them unless we pay a lot of money. The value is usually in the Southern Hem. The likes of Struass and CDP. Although Solly got as many wrong as right.
I like the fact he took a risk with Ellis Genge and got him sorted out, that sort of signing may be an option for us
Sorry, but you're obviously not looking at his recruitment history. He's more used to finding guys who play for low end teams and making something of them. Thomas Waldrom was hardly a big name when he arrived, having got 30 appearances for the crusaders over four seasons before being bumped by them and playing in the itm cup. Thompstone came from London Irish, Williams from Worcester, Genge from Bristol, Rizzo from Treviso, Barrow from the Falcons, Kitchener from Worcester, Slater from Nottingham, McCaffrey from London Welsh, etc. No one else would touch Matthew Tait before he was rehabbed by Leicester. He's not got a record of going and recruiting top players, he's got a record of signing guys who will do a job for him and getting them to do that job to the best of their ability. He's also used a fair number of academy lads and developed them into internationals, and he's done this consistently over a number of years.
Don't mention Rory Hutton. I did once but I think I got away with it.