By Whaley Shark
July 13 2013

Working my way through the next batch of new recruits, this time it’s ‘Hello’ to Andy Forsyth, Kirill Kulemin and Phil Mackenzie.

 

22 year old Andy, an outside centre who’s also played fullback and wing, joins us from Leicester Tigers where he has spent the last four seasons, though without breaking through to regular first team starts. He represented Egland at under-16 and under-18 levels.

Being old enough to remember Bill Maclaren’s idiosyncratic commentaries, he could have coined the phrase ‘Man Mountain’ for Kirill Kulemin. At 125 kg and 6 foot 6 tall, he’s an experienced lock who should add some serious grunt to our second row. He’s another player we’ve signed from London Welsh but, before moving to them last season, he played over 150 games in France in the course of eight seasons. He’s also a current Russian international with 25 caps.

Phil Mackenzie is a 26 year old Canadian international centre/wing who also joins us from London Welsh. He played three seasons in the Championship before stepping up to the Aviva Premiership with London Welsh last season. He scored five tries in twelve starts for Welsh, including one against us in that one point nail-biter at the Kassam back in February.

As before, a warm welcome to all three, and I hope you’re coping with pre-season in the heat.