SMART AND SMARTING
to his squad as he looks to push on from last season’s breakthrough and prepare for exposure to the elite of Europe.
“We’re always looking to find good players,” said the coach. “We still haven’t replaced [scrum-half] Sam Hidalgoclyne yet which we’re still looking to do and we’ll always try to strengthen our squad if the players are available and the money’s available.
“I’ll always be going to the board if the right player comes up that I think will be good for the team, then we’ll always try to get the money to make it work.”
Cockerill’s public suggestion that he could get one of Glasgow’s No 9s, Henry Pyrgos, Ali Price or George Horne, was given a frosty response by Warriors coach Dave Rennie but the Englishman insists that remains a live possibility.
“That’s something I’ll continue to discuss with my bosses around if that’s a possibility,” said Cockerill. “If the right player is available and we can make it work financially we’ll go into the market-place and try to improve that position. If not, with [Nathan] Fowles and [Sean] Kennedy and young Charlie Shiel who’s gone on tour, we crack on.”
Cockerill has yet to decide on the club captaincy for next
RICHARD COCKERILL season. On his arrival he appointed 22-year-old Magnus Bradbury but then had to withdraw the honour after the youngster injured himself in some drunken shenanigans. Stalwart Fraser Mckenzie took on the club leadership role with the week-to-week captaincy rotating among senior players.
The arrival of Scotland captain John Barclay would have made for an obvious new man for the job but the back-rower ruptured his Achilles in the Pro14 semi-final at Glasgow in what was his final game for Scarlets and is out for around six months.
Scotland tour captain Stuart Mcinally would be a strong contender after the hooker’s storming season but Cockerill said he will think about it later in the summer.
“Magnus is a young man that’s learned some valuable lessons, some on the field and a lot off the field, which is brilliant,” he said. “What happened to him wasn’t the end, it was about what he could learn from it and him being excluded from the squad made him doubly determined to come back and prove his worth and I think he’s done that.
“We’ll have a captain. Who that is I haven’t really thought too much about yet. Obviously John Barclay’s got lots of leadership ability, but he won’t be playing and when he’s available he may well be away with the national side.
“So it’s just trying to get the balance of do we have someone who’s going to be here more permanently week-in, week-out, day-in, day-out, and use the experience around that person which we may well do, we’ll see.”
“He [Lennon] is a good man. He’s a bit like me, he looks like he’s a thug but he’s quite intelligent. We were split at birth I think” “So, the [England] football team have drawn, the rugby team have lost and the cricket team have lost ever since I arrived!”