2023-24 Squad

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   Like many on here I have been pondering the make up of our squad with our enforced reductions. My gut feeling is that we are probably better off than most regions having two areas which other regions may be short of.
Firstly we have a number of squad members who are naturally coming up to their twilight years - this will not have come as a surprise to us so planning will/should have been in place. I include in this category - Halfpenny, Foxy, Ken, Phil Price & Sione.

Secondly we have some players who have had to retire/move due to injury/lack of action etc - Blade, Lezana, Rawlins, Helps, Jeffries, Baldwin.

I guess my point is that we have reductions to our squad which were probably going to happen anyway.

For sure some will leave that we want to keep - Javan for example but so far we are coming through this ahead of our rivals. 

Finally we then have to look to the future & where we stand. Undoubtedly the financial constraints will mean that players from the academy are going to seeing more playing time than historically. Many of us have been calling for this for many years. Looking at the French example most, if not all, of their under 20's squad were full time members of either top 14 squads or Pro D. It is very usual to see 19-21 year olds breaking into the full French squad even with their depth. 

We have young players who are about to be given their first team chances - Sam O'Connor, Lewis Morgan, Pritchard, Caleb Salmon, Griff Evans, Luca Giannini, Ben Williams, Harri Williams, Archie Hughes, Eddie James.

To sum up I guess it is certainly ground zero for regional rugby at the moment but am I as despondent as I thought I would be - unequivocally no. The off field management have to realise that quality coaching is going to be fundamental to our survival. Nobody is going to tell me that we do not have talented footballers who are able to compete but it is going to take very canny management & coaching to do it. 