Two in, two out. And the rest...?

Bye Bye Andy
By Andy Brown
June 6 2008

There's the old cliche of the London Busses - you wait for hours seemingly without end, and all of a sudden, two turn up at once. We've had a similar experience as Leeds fans this week; we've waited seemingly for ever for some kind of news from the club, and all of a sudden, two sets of stories pop up.

Firstly during the early part of the week was the news of two new signings; John Pendlebury from Gloucester, and Pete Bucknall from the mean streets of Pertemps. John has been in the Gloucester squad since 2004 after joining them from Rotherham, and comes willingly back to Yorkshire. Gloucester fans have had good words to say for him and are disappointed that a) he didn't break through into the first XV more often for them, and b) he's leaving. That, to me, is a reasonable recommendation, and I look forward to seeing him in the "enforcer" role at lock alongside the likes of Kiernan Myall and Phil Murphy.

Pete is more of an unknown quantity to me, and there's a distinct lack of chat about the topic on the Bees messageboard. With the Bees getting relegated last term, Pete clearly is looking to play at a higher level than Bees can offer him at the moment, and with our need to cover the prop position fairly urgently, he looks like a reasonable choice. Whether he becomes a perennial bench-sitter or develops into a challenger for starting honours only time can tell.

Welcome to them both.

The second "bus" was the announcement on the Donny site that Chris Hughes has left Leeds and signed for Doncaster. Having seen Hughesy play outstandingly well two seasons ago for us as a first team regular during the early part of that season, this looks like a very big loss to us. He has bags of pace and an impetuosity that ensures - rather like our Mr. Biggs - if he gets the ball, something will happen. It has to be recognised that he clearly still had some development to do there, and people claiming to be in the know suggest he hasn't come on as much as was expected. Some also say he was a little "disgruntled" at playing for the University side and would rather have been with the main squad more, and perhaps those two points are connected. All this being said, there is no news of Hughes' leaving on the official site, and indeed when I last checked he was still in the "current players" section of the player profiles pages.

And finally, we say farewell to Andy Tuilagi. "Twiggy"'s leaving is another surprise, although there are several interesting spins that can be placed on the news of his departure. He didn't make the impact in the Premiership we all had hoped, and one way of looking at his release is that it makes way for incoming talent that will be recruited specifically as Premiership players. A more negative way of seeing it is that he hasn't enjoyed being with us, wanted out, and the lack of a DoR at present means that there is no way of persuading him to stay. I hope it's the first.

We seem, however, to have been existing in something of a news vacuum recently. With Lanny's departure the hatches seemed to have been battened down, and the frustration of the membership of this site has threatened to boil over at times. I consider myself to be a staunch supporter (often to a fault) of the club and what it is trying to achieve, and even I find myself grumbling "when are we going to be told something?". I wonder, therefore, if it is connected that just recently a Yorkshire Post article was released to describe the current status of the search for a new DoR, providing warm and fuzzy reassuring noises about the calibre of the candidates and the probability of him (or her) being in place at the appropriate time. Certainly all the right noises made, but with such little to go on, the more cynical among us are questioning the news-worthiness of the report; after all, they would say that, wouldn't they? Well yes, of course, but what else could be done? When you're screaming for news and there's nothing really to say, what can be done? Exactly what has been done, and I think Carnegie were on to a loser from the start as far as keeping the restless natives quiet is concerned, untill such time as an announcement - with names - can be made.

What hasn't helped the cause is the PR gaffes that have happened in the last months of the season. Gary Hetherington's implication of his trip to Australia being to search for new players for Carnegie seems like a laughably cyncial manipulation of the message, since he came back with a single signing - for Rhinos*. And then there's the announcement that several players are coming and will be announced "in the next few weeks" when in fact we're a couple of months overdue those announcements and even more players are leaving. I'm finding it difficult to keep the positivity flowing.

But here's a thought. Going through the list of players we still have (or at least, haven't yet been announced as leaving), there's still a pretty strong first XXII there. However doomful we can get, we should remember that ND1 is a division we will be playing at the top end of with the players we have now. With astute signings and a DoR that can bring the right coaching to the squad, there's every chance that GP rugby for 2009/10 is still strong possibility, and with a prevailing wind, we can look to recruit for a Premiership return around about January 2009.

I wonder when we'll know?

* ADDITION: Gary may well be due an apology from me; if rumours in this week's Rugby Times are to be believed, then an Aussie DoR may well have been on the shopping list during that trip.