Cornish Pirates

Esher

Scrum-half Garrick Cowley has left the Surrey club to join Premiership new boys Exeter Chiefs.

The 28 year-old has won four caps for Manu Samoa and has also represented Bay of Plenty in the NPC and French side Bourg-en-Bresse prior to joining Esher last season.

Head coach Rob Baxter told the Chiefs website:

“Garrick will bring a good deal of experience and intelligence to the squad. Garrick has played to a high standard in New Zealand and has won several international caps.

He has had a very successful season with Esher and has been a guiding hand in the way they play as well as being an individual threat to the opposition

“He is desperate to get back to full-time rugby and to show that he can compete with the best players in the country.”

Plymouth Albion

Albion lock Mike Lewis has been forced to retire from the game after failing to recover from a persistent knee problem.

The 24 year-old lock had hoped that a consultation with a specialist in Coventry last week might offer the chance of continuing his career via a revolutionary surgical procedure. However those hopes were dashed and after 65 appearances for Albion he has been forced to hang up his boots.

Lewis told The Herald: "I am definitely having to retire now. Not even a year out of the game is going to help. I have basically worn through the whole cartilage and the bone is also frayed."

He continued: “I suppose I have done a lot better than some, but it is a hard pill to swallow when you have been there and then have to give it up. Rugby is all I have ever done until now, but I've had to get myself a job.”

"Hopefully in the future I will be able to pursue a career in rugby, but at the moment I am just considering every option. I think I will try my hand at everything and see what I like."

Full story www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Meanwhile Albion boss Graham Dawe is hoping that Irish trialist Mike Copeland will consider joining the club after impressing in an outing for Devonport Warriors last week.

The 22 year-old lock put in a solid shift in a 30-12 defeat to a British Armed Forces XV and Dawe told The Herald: "I'd like to think he'd come back. It's whether we can come to a mutual arrangement.

"I got the impression he's got lots of things to think about, like finishing his degree at the end of July.

"There's other things for him to consider, like moving over here."

Full story www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Nottingham

Nottingham skipper Craig Hammond has lamented the loss of talented players to Premiership clubs in the last couple of seasons but still insists that Nottingham will play at the highest level in the future.

Backs Dave Jackson and Tim Molenaar, and pack members Petrus du Plessis and Matt Parr are just a handful of the players snapped up by Premiership scouts and Hammond told the Nottingham Evening Post:

“It's frustrating to see some of our good players leaving, but credit to Glenn (Delaney) for bringing them to Meadow Lane in the first place.

It has got the Premiership clubs watching everything we do.

Glenn is doing the right thing but that's the nature of the beast – when you are in the Championship, the big clubs will be looking at your good players.

Last year, we lost three or four to the Premiership and, the year before, it was pretty much the same."We take them, develop them and if they are good enough, they will go to the Premiership.

We know we have young players in our squad now who will go on to the Premiership.

Even though we've lost those players, the standard of rugby is far higher now than it ever was.

We are a better team, a better club and have ambitions of playing in the Premiership in the next few years."

Full story www.thisisnottingham.co.uk