Saw all the players, coaching staff, Andy Gatcliff, Lord Doug, and a couple of match officials including Thierry Alibert on the same 22:20 plane as myself leaving Barcelona airport bound for Manchester.

apparently langer was there??????

seen Tony thornley try to climb the lamp post outside flahetys and fail miserably, then the Catalan fan climb to the top.

the fat one doin it

If you mean lager I saw loads of that

Mate of mine saw Gareth Hock in the Parc Guell, talking to the ghosts of Salvador Dalí and Luis Bunuel.

Didn't want to start a new thread, but someone I know who went to Barca said that Andy Gatcliffe informed him that the Sinfield signing LWF has banged on about [iis[/i all but a dead cert.

How reliable this is, I don't know, as I don't know the fella [ithat[/i well, but he seemed adamant so I'll just take his advice and watch this space for now.

I heard it's on, together with Bosc, for what it's worth.

Briers out?
Where does this leave the Myler deal?

Same bloke wouldn't comment on that. To be honest he also made a whisper about SBW. May have been talking ramblas to be honest. Was adamant about Bosc and Sinny though.

I can see why Sinfield would be wanted; Smith obviously knows his game inside out and would probably want him to play 13 with a 6 and 7 using the 'channel system' that worked so well for Leeds under Smith.

I think Monas would suit this well, too, tbh, as AFIK, it was first most widely used amongst Antipodean coaching gurus and, like most things, filtered its way over here in time. Monas also (not knocking him, just an observation) doesn't seem to fit the typical 'first reciever' Scrum Half role too well.

Bosc, I would imagine, would suit the channel system, too. With the language barrier, I'd imagine organisational and leadership wouldn't his main attribute we'd benefit from and Smith would say to him, more or less, here's your channel, take 'em on.


Interesting times ahead.

Indeed they are. The bloke (plays golf with a player and works with his dad) said briers wont get a new deal. I happen to think that with 10 games to go and no signing announced for Briers (yet other extensions announced for 'lesser' players) it's looking like the end of the road for him and the wire. He got the Bosc story from the man himself. I'd be happy with Bosc, delighted with Sinny.