The 20 players ooc is also a slight misnomer as a number of those are academy players who, probably reasonably, were on fairly short term contracts and are unlikely to feature anytime soon or at all.
Its still a large number of the first team squad ooc at the same time but its not quite as bad as some are making out.

Absolutley. Our overseas recruitment has been pretty patchy over the last few years, some real disappointments in there.

I have been saying for ages we should be looking at RU players a lot more.The RU game has changed lot with more running with the ball and defence much more in line with R/L.
Huge changes coming in RU
Many Premiership sides have been living hand to mouth, a situation that worsened as Covid-19 annihilated matchday income. Some UK£59 million (US$67.7 million) of the UK government’s UK£300 million (US$3444 million) ‘Sport Winter Survival Package’ in November 2020 was allocated to English top-flight rugby union clubs.
We have already seen whats happened to Worcester and Wasps and high wage bills cannot now be sustained so inevitably there will be some high quality players come available.
We certainly need someone with RU connections acting and advising the club of players availability

I assume we have as we signed that young lad from Welsh RU on a trial, Jermarie Chatham, although I believe he's at Cornwall now.

Just reading about him and apparently he was with us for 2 years but was released last year which was when he went to Cornwall.

I agree we should always be looking at young players in case we turn up a gem but i am talking about players in the RU premiership whos deals will finish this year and due to major financial problems in the game will have to either take a huge salary cut or look for another club.
Some hopefully will come into our game.

A sweeping generalisation on my part, but their technical skills - catch and pass, are very poor. Watching the 6 nations and the amount of ball that hits the floor, or the spin a pass out when it doesn't need it, or the runner has to stop as the pass is poor, is plentiful

It's not. Ex-England coaches Eddie Jones and Stuart Lancaster have made reference to this that the core skills of League players are far superior. That's why so many ex-league coaches are employed by union.

That's not to say that they are union players that could not be top League players. Some of the outside backs are brilliant and would excel in league. The front rowers and the lineout jumpers wouldn't stand a chance.

A costly legacy of Hodgson's tenure.

It's Simon Moran but yes I'm hoping Pearson gives Smith time as well. If Smith cannot build and improve us then I'm not sure who can.

For info Simon Jordan is the talksport opinionated dandy who talks like he has swallowed a thesaurus.

He is also Michelle Dewberrys long time partner.

Forget about the internationals try and watch some of the league games.
Bristol play very exciting attacking rugby and if Ratu hadnt have picked up his lengthy injury he would have been at the top or near top of try scorers.
As Marcus mentioned some of the half backs, outside backs and full backs are brilliant with bags of pace and with huge clearouts coming in Rugby Union and the UK no longer seen as attractive to overseas RU players there has to be room for some of these players in S/L.
Just wonder if the rumour about Ratu has any mileage as its still not clear whether he actually signed an extension to his 2year deal or whether he will be released.

The problem is despite the parlous state of union finances even the fringe players are on huge salarys. League clubs should be scouting union academy players. If I'm right the first season doesn't count on the cap?

I hope the Ratu rumour is just a rumour. I thought he was brilliant for us especially when you consider he was a union 7's player and signed for us in his mid 20's. Not sure he's ever played league before.

It wasn't all bad there was...errr....there was...hmmm....maybe it was all bad...
Were Hoy and Clifford signed before Hodgson departed?

Pretty sure Hoy was signed under Hodgson as well as Sutcliffe, Trueman and Dwyer but Clifford was signed under Smith.

I stand to be corrected if I'm wrong.

I read a piece on the state of the union game and its current finances , It was more or less saying , The current levels of wages cannot be sustained and wages need to be cut .
That would play more into or at least get nearer to SL levels for fringe players or even possibly even better skilled players should our own Salary cap increase .
It would be nice to see the flow of players change back from one code back to League .