Steven Sykes

[rathgarblue]

His Leinster career totaled 197 minutes................did you see him play!!

Saw him v Cardiff thought he did ok but Cardiff were poor oppo that day (it will be different in the QF).

[hugonaut]

He has signed a year deal with Sharks back home.

I think the smart move would be for Leinster to bring Caldwell back from bath.

Disappointing that the Sykes move didn't work, my Saffer mates rated him very highly as a footballing lock. Doubly disappointing for both Leinster and Ireland in a problem position. Think Sykes was an Irish project player.

Wouldn't go near Caldwell - journeyman player with a discipline problem at a below average club. If we bring in anybody it should be a player who is or has the potential to be better than what we have and ideally with the possibility to qualify for Ireland - otherwise we're better off with what we have in my opinion.

As a stop gap, Nick Kennedy is probably leaving London Irish - a line out that had Kennedy and Toner would steal a lot of opposition ball.....though I think Kennedy might be off to Toulon.

Nah. Great athlete who was an Ulster regular and Irish international at 24. Not denying that he had an attitude problem, gave away too many penalties and was in general a bit thick up in Ulster, but the chap has great physical gifts. Not many people knocking around Irish rugby at 201cm [6'7"] and 114kg [17st13lbs] who have good pace, decent hands and lots of aggression.

With respect Flash, I think the 'journeyman' tag is misapplied here: he's a guy who was always expected to be an international. He went to two U21 World Cups [2004 as a 19 year old & 2005 as a 20 year old], debuted for Ulster in 05-06 as a 21-year old, played in 23 games [including all six HEC games] in 07-08 as a 23 year old, started all three of the Ireland 'A' Churchill Cup games that summer and was a locked-down Ulster starter the next season as a 24 year old [source: http://www.ulsterrugby.com/rugby/ulster ... ef=dynamic ].

In January 2008 he was added to the same IRFU High Performance Unit as Healy, Fitz, Ferris, Sexton, Kearney, Bowe, Donncha Ryan and Heaslip. He was second row on the 'A' team that year, and got his first full cap the following year on the mickey-mouse tour of North America when the Lions was on. That may not be an electric, Paul O'Connell-esque start to your international career as a second row, but it is steady progress at a young age through all the right channels.

His problems at Ulster kicked in in 2009-10 with two significant changes to the Ulster set-up: Brian McLaughlin replaced Mattie Williams as head coach, and Dan Tuohy joined from Exeter Chiefs. McLaughlin essentially backed Tuohy as a front jumper, while sticking with Useless Ed O'Donoghue as middle jumper, and then when Johann Muller arrived as middle jumper, there was obviously some sort of falling out, because Caldwell only started 3 games in the 2010-11 season.

It's easy to imagine that there could have been a failure to see eye-to-eye between a heavily-tattooed marginal head case like Caldwell and McLaughlin, a school teacher at RBAI. Whether co-incidentally or not, that's Caldwell's alma mater, whom he led to the Ulster Schools Senior Cup as captain. I'd say there's a good bit bubbling below the surface there that some of the Ulster fans here might know about. Unless he was injured, the 3-start season seems like a clash-of-personalities type of deal.

There's a [reasonably] interesting interview with him here: http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/h ... 59167.html

I'll hold my hands up to being a big fan of Caldwell's potential, if not necessarily Caldwell as a player ... yet. He's going well in Bath under an extremely experienced coach in McGeechan, which will stand to him. Put him in a dressing room with Leo Cullen, Shane Jennings, Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip, and have Joe Schmidt Jono Gibbes and Greg Feek coach him, and I reckon he would be a good addition to Leinster when his contract at Bath is up.

[ronk]

Unfortunate.

But sometimes players don't settle for whatever reason. Good luck to him. It'll be interesting seeing how we manage.

[Lar]

2) his agent flew over to see him play in an A game. He asked Gibbes how Sykes was getting on - Jonno replied: well on the plus side he can't play much worse..

Was it him I read about being cross about being taken off at HT because his agent was coming to see him play only the be told that was why he was being taken off!!!

[ronk]

No that story is much older.

[mickyt]

Think we would need to see a link or some confirmation of Sykes leaving before speculating too much on who will replace him and what we need in the interim. Has anyone got any confirmed reports??

Failing that my understanding is he is under contract for another 2.5 years and by all accounts and from watching a good bit of S15 rugby last year is a player good enough to play for Leinster

[slum]

Think we would need to see a link or some confirmation of Sykes leaving before speculating too much on who will replace him and what we need in the interim. Has anyone got any confirmed reports??

Failing that my understanding is he is under contract for another 2.5 years and by all accounts and from watching a good bit of S15 rugby last year is a player good enough to play for Leinster

He is signing a contract today i heard. So maybe there will be an official announcement tmw

[mickyt]

If that is the truth then I guess it's not that big a deal for us as it has been mentioned before he has hardly been an ever present since signing. we have managed up until now. Having said that we will have gotten great use out of him during the 6N's so that's where I see us struggling during this period.

In a worst case scenario it will have left us thin on the ground but hopefully it doesn't come to that.

I reckon Kevin Mc will see some time in the 2nd row over the 6N's along with Browne. Toner I expect will be released for some Rabo games as well.

[Lar]

Mark Flanagan too?

[mickyt]

Yep. Flanagan I would imagine would get some bench time initially but never know may get a start either at home to Treviso or away to Aroni.

[Apocrypha]

2) his agent flew over to see him play in an A game. He asked Gibbes how Sykes was getting on - Jonno replied: well on the plus side he can't play much worse..

Was it him I read about being cross about being taken off at HT because his agent was coming to see him play only the be told that was why he was being taken off!!!

Clint Huppert. An equally poor signing...

[simonokeeffe]

unless Leo goes for his operation Dev is Ireland's 5th choice lock at best so we should have him for all of 6n.
Nagle is under contract with Munster for next season as well as far as I know (think he signed a two year deal with them rather than go to Saints end of last year) but Dave Foley well worth snapping up from Munster if he is free

I have a feeling we never got Sykes fit enough to accurrately gauge him (although CJ's toes healed up quick in warmer weather) and we had same problem for a good while with Chris Whittaker

Mujati will be glad to see him in a different hemisphere anyway

[cormac]

Neilus Keogh may get a development contract, he's a big unit who could do a job at Rabo level.

[Leinsterman]

What's Brad Thorn up to these days?

I wonder if Matfield could be tempted out of retirement for four months.

[Donny B.]

What's Brad Thorn up to these days?

I wonder if Matfield could be tempted out of retirement for four months.

Thorn is making bundles of yen in Japan.

Matfield could be a runner, but I think he was going into coaching with the Bulls

[Leinsterman]

Let's start the PR campaign for Matfield here and now!
Get Ollie on the case.

[simonokeeffe]

Matfield might be worth signing just to break our hoodoo with SH locks (Sykes, EOD, Finnegan, Byrnes, Williams)

[Donny B.]

Matfield might be worth signing just to break our hoodoo with SH locks (Sykes, EOD, Finnegan, Byrnes, Williams)

Well to be fair Nathan Hines is from Australia.

[Flash Gordon]

Matfield might be worth signing just to break our hoodoo with SH locks (Sykes, EOD, Finnegan, Byrnes, Williams)

The other alternative is sign Northern Hemisphere locks. That Scots lad at Clermont looks a bit tasty......

Hugonaut, great post on Caldwell, you nearly had me convinced...... The Ulster coaching staff (adn lads he played with) wouldn't have rated him too highly, and it wasn't just about attitude.....At the end of the day he's never made the breakthrough, he's not a kid anymore and he's playing for a bottom end club in the weakest first tier league in Europe. So given a choice between him and what we have, I'd take what we have. As European Champions, we should be targetting having top international players in all positions and to be honest, I really don't think Caldwell will ever get there.

LM I thought about Thorn too, but he's on huge money in Japan.....Matfied would be even better and if he wants to get into coaching what better place than the European champions to start the education!

[Justtoby]

Sykes has signed for the Sharks:

http://www.sharksworld.co.za/2012/01/23 ... to-sharks/