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Francois Pienaar, the former South African captain who joins after Christmas, will reportedly pick up pounds 500,000 in his two and a bit seasons with the north London club.Wigton have no professionals and Ray Graham is the director of coaching of the lowliest club in the competition, they are currently second in North One, the equivalent of a fifth division. Graham only took up the coaching duties (unpaid of course) at the start of the season, but already their direct, running game has set the north alight."It's Ray's coaching that has lifted Wigton," said Lawrence, who is trying to get his commercial flying career off the ground. "If you talk to supporters they will tell you it is a long time since they have seen rugby like this played at Wigton I am really enjoying it. I know I'll get the ball in a match and I've been averaging almost a try a game."Graham, 46, who has played in all eight forward positions, believes in giant-killing. He was captain of the Wigton side that felled Sale when Steve Smith and Fran Cotton were around.Cotton was so angry after that 24-7 preliminary-round defeat that he kicked the changing-room door (the club have since had the mark framed).Graham's philosophy is simple "If we kick we lose control," he said. "Anyway our fly-half Tane Manihera can't kick very well." The Maori, signed as an amateur from rugby league side Carlisle Raiders, is certainly not afraid to run the ball from his own 22 according to his team-mates.There are ambitious plans afoot for Wigton to amalgamate with the Raiders, but having also acquired a former player of theirs, the centre Matt Elliott, who has improved immeasurably since his return from the 13-man code, it looks as if they are well down the line to pool playing resources at least.Graham is positive about the tie.
The two sides last met in the competition in the 1979-80 season, immediately after toppling Sale. On that occasion Wigton lost at home 7-3 - "to a try that wasn't," claims their secretary, Malcolm SunterThis time Graham points out: "We are better prepared Moseley are still trying to build their team We are also on a run having won our last 12 games. Ours is a side that believes in itself."Down at Reading, Tewkesbury is more cautious "The days of Cup upsets are going," he said. "There is a vast gulf opening between the First and some of the Second Division clubs and the rest. The professionals can train day in, day out, improving and grooving techniques and ball skills. But we respect Saracens and we feel they are a side we can learn from."So there you have it. Reading expect to learn from their experience.Wigton are bent on teaching Moseley a lesson..
The Rugby Football Union yesterday ignored the delay in the English Professional Rugby Union Clubs signing the agreement the two sides have reached and promised nearly pounds 1m to the First and Second Division clubs to help the poorer among them to settle their wage bills. The payments of pounds 40,000 to each of the 24 clubs, the first installments of the pounds 8m they should share this season, are being made by the RFU on the basis that the agreement that was negotiated on 5 December is signed soon. The Epruc clubs met yesterday, but Kim Deshayes, Epruc's chief executive, said: "Unfortunately because of illness, an important document was not available for us to consider. So, we will reconvene on 7 January in the expectation that we can conclude the deal." The RFU said that the payments were being made because the complex legal and taxation issues involved were delaying finalising the agreement.The Scottish Rugby Union has turned down an appeal by Tim Grady, of Edinburgh Wanderers, against an 18-month ban imposed on him last month. Grady was cited following his side's Tennents National League match against Portobello FP on 12 October during which an opponent suffered facial injuries. The incident is the subject of current civil and criminal actions.Coventry members rejected a takeover bid from Coventry City Football Club by a large majority at an extraordinary general meeting, where the preferred option was to explore the best possible deal with the London property group Leander. Under the Leander proposal, the club would become a plc and the property group would take a controlling interest by buying a million pounds 1 shares.The referees' dispute which has disrupted this weekend's Welsh League programme could shortly be resolved.
Following an emergency meeting of the Welsh Rugby Union general committee, WRU officials and referees' representatives will sit down together to try to settle the contentious issue of match fees which provoked this weekend's strike.. The Leicester City Riders coach, Bob Donewald, and his band of Americans have pumped life into the Granby Halls this season, but tonight they are on a hat-trick of home defeats against the Budweiser League champions, London Towers. Riders' "in your face" style has reaped the worst foul count in the League, averaging 25 per game, and Donewald returns after serving a two-game ban for being ejected from the League Trophy defeat by Chester Jets. But the crowd at Granby have responded and the London coach, Kevin Cadle, is wary of the greeting awaiting his team: "Games at Leicester have always been tough, but now they're getting their fans back with that aggressive home court atmosphere." Towers, toughened by a run that has taken them into the last 32 of the European Cup, should hardly be psyched out. The Leicester-born Karl Brown, who left London Leopards in the summer to join the Towers, said: "In the long run the European campaign will help It's hard, but it brings the players' level up.".
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