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Wales Online

Sport

Ben James

Tonight's rugby news as race to sign Lions star is on and family outraged over killer of former Wasps player

Lions WASPS Rugby Ulster Dwayne Peel Jim OToole Eddie Jones Italy Nigel Owens Osama bin Laden

Here are your rugby evening headlines for Tuesday, 27 September.

Race to sign Lions star

A host of top clubs are reportedly keen to sign Lions and Scotland prop Rory Sutherland amid the crisis at Worcester Warriors.

All of the club's players are able to terminate their contracts with the English side after the club entered administration this week. Worcester have been suspended from all competitions and could face the prospect of automatic relegation.

Sutherland's situation is being closely followed by Bath, Castres, Ulster and Glasgow, according to SomersetLive.

Worcester defence and forwards coach Nick Easter told the BBC: "We want to keep everyone on. Dimes [director of rugby Steven Diamond] is obviously in charge of everything on the rugby side and he has said he wants to keep everyone [all the players and coaches] on but he won't stand in the way if anyone wants to leave.

"A small amount of people have asked if they can leave, I don't think their minds are made up. I know everyone is committed to wanting to stay but it gets to a point where you can't keep getting led on down the garden path.

"Now with the suspension and administration we will be closer to finding out what is going to happen."

Family outraged at proposed day release of killer

The killer of a former Wasps rugby player could be granted day release less than two years after he was sentenced - prompting the victim's family to ask: "How will anyone be safe?"

Allan Isichei, 69, was stabbed to death by Gurjeet Lall, 38, on his way back from his local pub, yards from the home he shared with his wife, Sandra, in Southall, west London, in August 2019.

The father-of-three, who had five grandchildren, was a prop for Wasps during the 1970s and 1980s, and played nearly 200 games for the club's first XV.

Schizophrenic Lall was cleared of Mr Isichei's murder but found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility at Inner London Crown Court and detained indefinitely under section 37 of the Mental Health Act in December 2020.

Now the prison and probation service has told Mr Isichei's family the Ministry of Justice has been asked by the hospital where Lall is being detained to grant him escorted leave.

The email, seen by the PA news agency, says that, if granted, he will initially be allowed out for an hour a week, "with progression to additional hours, thereafter" but will "at all times" be "escorted by a member of staff".

"The offender can eventually progress to unescorted leave. However, a further application to the MoJ will need to be made," it says.

Mr Isichei's family branded the application an "absolute insult" and said it was "another example of the way the probation and justice service is unable to function correctly".

Peel urges Scarlets to find 'whole package'

Dwayne Peel has urged the Scarlets to find a rounded performance as they prepare to head out to Italy to take on Benetton on Saturday.

The west Walians have yet to win in the opening two rounds of the BKT United Rugby Championship - drawing against the Ospreys before falling to Ulster in a 12-try thriller. While there have been plenty of attacking positives from his side, a fully-rounded 80 minute outing has eluded them so far.

“Obviously, it’s not where we wanted to be on the back of these first two games; this a big week of prep ahead of another massive game in Treviso this weekend," said Peel.

“I don’t think we are far away, we were good in attack against Ulster, scored some nice tries, but we need to put the whole package together and we haven’t done that in the opening two games.

“We have had two games of high intensity and we have another against Benetton, they rested a few players for their match against Leinster so they will be fully firing into us I am sure.

"It was a huge effort (against Ulster), but we were second best in the fundamentals of the game – basically that is what won Ulster the game. They exited better than us and put pressure on us through their kick chase. I thought Cooney’s kicking was excellent.

“There are a few discipline areas that we need to tidy up, but it was a game of high-intensity, lots of tries and with seven minutes to go we were six points behind. I am disappointed we didn’t nail the fundamentals and at this level when you play the top teams that has to be your bread and butter.”

Land around Sixways crucial to any Worcester deal

Former Worcester Warriors chief executive and current takeover figurehead Jim O'Toole says the ownership of the land at Sixways is key to any deal.

O'Toole is now head of one of two bidding consortiums for the now suspended Premiership club. On Tuesday, BBC Hereford & Worcester reported that administrators have been officially appointed to take over the club.

The ground and the club fall under WRFC Trading Limited, meaning that administrators Begbies Traynor will be handed control of the stadium, but much of the land around Sixways belongs to various companies owned by the club's co-owners Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring.

"The land has to be part of it. Simple as that," O'Toole told BBC Hereford & Worcester.

"It's all about who owns the land, and whether the administrator - in doing their due diligence and forensic accounting - finds out what exactly happens to the assets and the liabilities.

"That is going to be the absolute key to this. We can't run a rugby club without a pitch, a back car park and the fanzone.

"Not only for the operation of the business but for the longer-term and bigger picture commercial development that will fund the club on a more sustainable footing."

Eddie Jones takes inspiration from Navy Seals

Eddie Jones has revealed that the mission by US Special Forces to kill Osama bin Laden is being used as an unlikely source of inspiration to make England better at adapting to adversity.

After naming a training squad for a three-day training camp next week, the coach revealed that he recently travelled to California to spend a couple of days with the Navy Seals.

It was there that he learned about how their operation in Pakistan to kill bin Laden in 2011, codenamed Neptune Spear, nearly went wrong.

"I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days out in San Diego about three weeks ago with the Navy Seals — understanding how we can prepare the players better to cope with the unexpected," he said.

"You know the Osama thing — they practised that project for 12 months, for 38 minutes of work. And the first thing they did was wrong. The helicopter hit the wires. They had 12 months to prepare, went through it religiously and they still get something wrong, but then they were able to cope with it and get it done within 38 minutes.

"Look at us now, 12 months to the World Cup. We're preparing for a game that's got 35 minutes' ball-in-play time. So the ability to dress-rehearse, prepare the players for what's coming up — whether it's the first round, second round — is exciting, isn't it?'

U20s Six Nations fixtures released

The fixtures for the 2023 U20s Six Nations have been released.

The first four rounds will see all the matches played on Friday nights, with the final weekend employing a format similar to the senior competition - with the games following one another on a bumper final day of action.

2023 Under-20 Six Nations Fixtures (time GMT)

Friday 3 February