By Whaley Shark
June 30 2013

Even though domestic rugby is still many weeks away, I thought it was time to stop looking backwards at last season, and start thinking about what next season might be like. There’s been a fair amount of change in the playing personnel, so that seemed like a good place to start, and I might as well work through the new boys in alphabetical order. So here are the first three-

 

Tom Arscott. 25 year old Tom is the younger brother of Exeter fullback Luke and plays wing/fullback. An established Premiership player, he has six seasons of experience, with 49 starts, first at Bristol, from where he moved on to Worcester, and he has spent the last season at London Welsh. From the times I have seen him playing against us, he’s a pretty classical full back, safe under the high ball and, when given a bit of space, a penetrating runner.

Dan Baines is 26 and stepping up to the Premiership after three seasons at Rotherham, for whom he played at hooker in the Championship. He’s a relatively local boy, Lancaster-born, and having started out playing for Vale of Lune and then Macclesfield, where he had a flirtation with Sale Sharks, before moving to Rotherham. He claims to cover openside flanker as well and, judging from his Twitter feed (bainesy4886), is just loving preseason.

Joe Ford is another member of the Ford rugby dynasty. Dad Mike was a League star, a member of the World Cup-winning England coaching setup in 2003, and now coaches at Bath, where Joe’s younger brother George has just moved. Oldham-born and just 23 years old, Joe is a fly half/full back who made 5 appearances for Northampton Saints in the Premiership during the 2010-2011 season, moved to Leeds in search of more game time, and is now having another bite at the Premiership.

Welcome and good luck to these three, and their colleagues, who’ll keep this board ticking over for the next few weeks.