Cornish Pirates

Bristol

The cost of missing out on promotion back to the Premiership has become painful at Bristol with the club asking its players to take pay cuts of up to 50% or find new clubs as they face a budget shortfall of around £2.5 million next season.

Forwards coach John Brain has, as widely speculated, also left his post early as Bristol prepare to operate on a budget estimated to be £700,000.

One un-named first team player told the Bristol Evening Post: "What do I do now? What am I supposed to do? This is a hammer blow.

"It's a bit of a surprise, to say the least, that the club didn't have a contingency plan for what happened if we didn't go up."

The paper comments: “The move will force the majority of Bristol players to seriously consider their futures, with players such as Lee Robinson (Leicester), Luke Arscott (Sale), Junior Fatialofa and James Phillips (both Exeter) all thought to be attracting genuine interest from elsewhere.”

Full story www.thisisbristol.co.uk

These lates developments came in the wake of the following statement issued by Bristol chairman Chris Booy yesterday:-

"I am sure we all share the disappointment of last Wednesday evening. I still cannot believe we fluffed our lines on the big stage, but that is the emotional roller coaster of sport.

The board had made available every resource we could to secure promotion and realistically this season was our best chance to get back into the Premiership. Next season we will lose the parachute payment we had this year, and missing out on promotion has punched a £2m-£2.5m hole in our finances.

Bristol Rugby - along with the vast majority of professional clubs - lose a significant sum of money, and again I want to thank the small and loyal band of benefactors whose generosity has kept the club afloat.

In the 7 years I have been involved on the board of Bristol, with the last 18 months as Chairman, this group have spent £5m meeting the gap between our income and expenditure.

I have always made it clear that we will not jeopardise our future by making commitments we cannot meet, and on Thursday night the board approved a new budget for the forthcoming season, a budget that has been reduced significantly to reflect where we are now.

We will need to make dramatic savings if we are to survive but with the support of everyone involved, we will achieve this. The biggest overhead we have is staff, and over this last year we have cut back to the bone all other areas to maximise the playing budget.

We will have to cut this budget now to reflect the income we are forecasting. Players will be leaving the club - I know the message boards and the pub talk will speculate as to who is going and who is staying but we have not agreed next season's squad and all the playing staff are being spoken to over the next week or so.

This is a process made more difficult as many have now gone away for the post season break. We will make a further announcement on this in due course once the decisions have been made. John Brain, whose contract expires in June, will leave the club and I want to thank him for his efforts and wish him well.

We will be competitive next year, we will ensure a squad of players who are committed and will represent the club with passion and commitment, and we will continue to spend all we can on the playing budget.

Now is the time for us to take stock and really plan for our future - the stadium and the funding we need, must be addressed before we can attract the serious investment required to re-establish ourselves in the top flight.

For now, we are making the tough decisions that need to be made and I want to thank everyone for the loyalty and passion they have shown across the season."

C'Mon Bris.

Chris Booy

Chairman Bristol Rugby

Doncaster Knights

Lynn Howells has told The Star that entertaining rugby will “become a priority” at Castle Park next season.

The Welshman continued: “We have to entertain the supporters. It was difficult for them at the start of last season when we had to play a certain way because of all the injuries that we had

"Because of all the injuries we lost our first six league games which meant that we had to play catch-up rugby for most of the season to try and make the play-offs

"It wasn't always pretty to watch, but it was just a matter of grinding out results to try and finish in the top eight.”

Full story www.thestar.co.uk

Nottingham

Saracens have swooped to sign 27 year-old prop Matt Parr from Nottingham just months after capturing his front row colleague Petrus du Plessis.

Director of rugby at Vicarage Road Brendan Venter told the Daily Telegraph: "Petrus du Plessis moved from Nottingham to Saracens a couple of months ago, and has done really well, so I'm looking forward to following the same path.

Anybody who has watched Saracens over the past few months can see there is something happening at the club ... and, you know what, it's special."

Venter added: "Matt has been highly recommended to us, not least by his front row team-mate Petrus, and we are confident we have found another gem in the Championship.

We are not a club that trawls the who's who of world rugby – we look for players with talent and character, and that's exactly what we have signed in Matt."

Plymouth Albion

Danny Thomas, Albion`s all time league appearance record holder, has left Brickfields to become the new head coach at Barnstaple.

Chairman of rugby Graham Dawe told The Herald: “It is sad he is not staying at Plymouth Albion, but it has come down to a funding issue and we've had to cut our cloth accordingly. Hopefully, Danny enjoyed his time at Albion and he is always welcome back.

Dawe added: "Danny was doing an important job. He was coaching our forwards and the Warriors, and also coaching the university."

Full story www.thisisplymouth.co.uk