Italy, whipping boys in the Six Nations and Heineken Cup, finally got some good news yesterday when the Magners League said it would admit two Italian sides, even though it will not be for a couple of seasons.
The Celtic Rugby Board has agreed in principle that the teams, probably based in Milan and either Rome or Treviso and made up of the best players in Italian league, can join the Welsh, Scots and Irish during the 2010-2011 season. That is dependant on certain conditions regarding "playing and facility standards, finance and commercial including television" being met. Effectively the current 10 sides want guarantees that they will not lose out financially.
The Five Nations became the Six Nations in 2000 to accommodate Italy, but they have been consistently the weakest side and took the wooden spoon – with five defeats – again this season. The Heineken Cup has witnessed some brave Italian performances, but playing the Celtic sides regularly is seen as a more realistic way of improving the standard of rugby in Italy. Whether it will stop of the drift of better players to France and England is another matter.
Yesterday, two Welsh members of the Magners League swapped an international prop, Rhys Thomas moving from Newport Gwent Dragons to the Scarlets. The 19st 11lb 26-year-old tight-head has played 119 games for the Dragons and seven times for Wales since moving from South Africa aged 18.
The Dragons will be replacing Thomas with the former Junior All Black, Waikato Chiefs and Western Force prop, Ben Castle, who moves to Rodney Parade in the summer on a three-year deal. Castle, who is 29, played alongside the Dragons captain, Tom Willis, during his 42 games with the Chiefs and also led Bay of Plenty.
Jonny Wilkinson's hopes of a belated attempt to make the British and Irish Lions squad have been hit after being forced to put his Premiership comeback on hold again.
In line to make his return for the Falcons at Bath last weekend after an operation last September on his dislocated knee, Wilkinson was disappointed to have to sit the game out when he suffered a reaction to an increase in his training schedule which resulted in the knee swelling up.
Wilkinson hoped the knee would settle down in time for him to be on the bench for the Falcons home game against the league leaders Leicester tomorrow night, but Newcastle's director of rugby, Steve Bates, has ruled that out. "The problem that he had last week hasn't really recovered at the rate we thought it would and so it was pretty clear early on that he wouldn't be able to take part in full training this week and the quick turnaround in games meant that he was never really in contention.
"It's almost a day-to-day assessment. I think this has been a bit of a set-back but I think everybody is confident he's moving along the right lines and it's just a case of seeing how he reacts when he's back out running around. It's just not an option to rush him back.
"We're not in desperate need of him, a 75% fit Jonny Wilkinson is just not a starter. We just need to look after him and make sure he is right and he's the only one who can really determine that and when he's ready, we'll go with him."
