Gulliver and Armes sign for Bedford Blues

Posted on May 17, 2012 in Bedford

Bedford Blues have signed two Premiership stars for the 2012/13 Championship season – and both will be familiar names to the Goldington Road faithful.

After one season with Worcester Warriors, Ben Gulliver, who previously played for the Cornish Pirates, Plymouth and Coventry as well as a loan spell with Leicester Tigers, is making the move from Sixways.

Gulliver, 30, who stands at six foot five inches tall and weighs in at almost 17 and a half stone will add some much needed fire power and experience to the Blues second row.

Adding a bit of weight in the back row department will be former Bedford Blues Academy player Tom Armes who returns to Goldington Road after a four year stint with Leister Tigers.

Armes, who can play anywhere across the back row, was signed to the Leicester Academy and played in the ‘A’ League with Tigers before making his debut as a replacement in the Premiership win over Northampton in October 2009 followed up a week later by coming off the bench in the historic win over the then world champions South Africa.

The 21-year-old spent time with Championship rivals Nottingham during the 2010/11 season to gain some valuable game time but returns to his roots with a permanent move to Goldington Road.

Blues Director of Rugby Mike Rayer said: “I am thrilled to be able to welcome Ben and Tom to Goldington Road and I think everyone will be excited to see them in action for the Blues next season.

“We all know just how important a player Ben was for the Pirates and how influential he was down in the West Country. I have no doubts that after a stint in the Premiership, he will be fired up and raring to get going for us next term.

“Tom is a fantastic talent who we all know really well and I’m sure he will slot in perfectly within our back row. Tom headed off to Leicester with our best wishes but we are now delighted to welcome him back and I’m certain it won’t take long to get back into the swing of things.”

Gulliver travels to promoted Warriors

Posted on May 27, 2011 in Latest Rugby News

Towering lock Ben Gulliver has today put pen to paper and completed his anticipated move to Worcester Warriors ahead of the club’s forthcoming Aviva Premiership season.

Coventry-born second row Gulliver makes the move from Cornish Pirates after an outstanding season in the RFU Championship which saw him catch the eye of a number of top-flight clubs.

The 30-year-old last season had a three-month loan spell at Leicester Tigers as temporary cover for injured England international locks Geoff Parling and Louis Deacon.

Gulliver’s stature – he stands at 6ft 5in tall and weighs 17st 5lbs – makes him a big threat at line-outs and he was one of the vice-captains at Pirates, leading the side on several occasions.

The lock began his career at Coventry and following a spell at Saracens – where he represented England Students – Gulliver made the move to Plymouth Albion.

Gulliver moved to Albion’s local rivals Cornish Pirates in 2008 and played a major role in the club lifting the inaugural British & Irish Cup in 2010.

Head Coach Richard Hill revealed he has tracked Gulliver for a number of seasons and was delighted to finally get his man.

“I have been watching Ben for a long time and I have twice looked to sign him before, only for him to suffer an injury, so I am pleased to finally sign him up,” he said.

“He first impressed me at Coventry and when Graham Dawe signs a forward (for Plymouth) you know they are a good one because he has a very good eye for a talent.

“Ben was on loan at Leicester last season and he played against in the A League and had a very good game for Tigers.

“Ben also impressed when playing for Pirates against Warriors. He is a very hard, abrasive, combative and aggressive forward that caused us a few problems.

“He is physically very strong and athletic for a big man. I am sure Ben will be able to make the step up to Premiership level next season with the Warriors.”

Gulliver is the 11^th new signing at Warriors and is joined by Shaun Perry, Danny Gray, Ceri Jones, James Percival, Chris Jones, Ollie Hayes, Errie Claassens, Josh Drauniniu, Sione Tu’ipulotu and George Porter.

Knights continue squad rebuild with Toft capture

Posted on May 10, 2011 in Latest Rugby News

Only a day after the announcement of Mike Whitehead’s return to South Yorkshire Davey announces another experienced player winging his way into Castle Park. 24 year old Ben Toft, a player who made over 50 appearances at this level in a 3 year spell at Coventry has put pen to paper on a deal to be part of the Knights RFU Championship 2011/12 Campaign.

Toft, a player Davey coached during his time at Coventry, comes to the Knights via French side Oyonnax , having taken time in his career to experience French Rugby.

He developed through the Leicester Academy and signed his first professional contract with Leicester staying for 2 seasons and earning some game time (2002-06). This was a period that saw Toft represent England at U16, U18 and U19 level.

Toft moved on to a successful 3 year period at Coventry , during which time he was coached by Brett Davey. Scoring several wonder tries and winning many “man of the match” awards Ben’s time at Coventry was an undoubted success.

On the player, Davey commented “ Ben is a player I know a lot about and I think he is the ideal complement to the two wingers we already have, Flockhart and Keating. While the two of them have size and power about their game Ben has pace, guile and a few tricks up his sleeve”. He continued “ There is a strong theme running through recruitment at Doncaster and that is balance. It is imperative that we are able to change our game dependent upon the situation and I believe we are building the foundations to enable that.”

A key to Ben’s game is not just his pace but reliability under pressure, although predominantly a Winger Toft is another player who can comfortably fill in at Full Back. He is known for being solid in defence and comfortable under the high ball.

Skirving commits to two more years at Bath

Posted on Mar 22, 2011 in Latest Rugby News

Ben Skirving has committed to two more years at Bath Rugby, and the Club are delighted to have secured the extension of his contract.

The 27 year old, multi-talented back-row has the rare achievement of having featured in every match-day squad this season, and was most recently awarded the Aviva Premiership Rugby Man of the Match in the hard fought victory over Exeter Chiefs.

A dynamic, powerful forward, Ben has made a total of 49 appearances in the blue, black and white, after joining from Saracens in 2009. Having impressed in the England Sevens team, a full international call-up followed in June 2007, where he faced future team-mate Butch James, in the match against South Africa.

Commenting on the news, Ben said “I am very happy to be re-signing with Bath for another two years. I have greatly enjoyed my time here so far, and feel I can contribute more to the team over the coming seasons as the Club moves forward. I am really excited about staying and being part of what I think will be a bright and successful future.”

Sir Ian McGeechan, Director of Rugby, commented “We are very happy Ben has agreed to stay with the Club. He has been a very effective player for us this season, and his hard work and dependability is a very good example to the rest of the squad.”

Steve Meehan, Head Coach, added “Ben has worked very hard on his defensive and attacking game, and he has made big gains in his ball carrying and overall involvement around the park. He is an accomplished line-out operator and his positional flexibility makes him a very useful player to have in the squad. He is a great asset to Bath Rugby.”

England sevens lose out to NZ in final

Posted on Feb 7, 2011 in Rugby News

HSBC Sevens World Series leaders England went down 29-14 to New Zealand in today’s final of the NZI Sevens in Wellington.

Isoa Damudamu (British Army) scored early on and Simon Hunt (Birmingham & Solihull) struck in the closing moments with Ben Gollings supplying the conversions.

But a Declan O’Donnell hat trick and scores from Tomasi Cama and Toby Arnold saw the hosts home.

The two sides are locked together at the top of the series rankings, with England still leading by virtue of having reached all three tournament finals so far this season.

And they now head for next weekend’s USA Sevens in Las Vegas determined to make amends for their Westpac Stadium setback.

Head coach Ben Ryan said: “There were a couple of cucial points, the key being early in the second half when New Zealand got the score that took them away from us, but we’re still top on finals reached and still No.1.

“It hurts losing here and we’ll be using this as ammunition to make sure we do a job next weekend. We’ll see how good we are in Law Vegas.”

Earlier England booked their place in the semi finals with a 14-7 win against Argentina.

Damudamu scored his first try of the tournament and Dan Norton his fourth before the break with Gollings’s two conversions taking England into a 14-0 interval lead.

But a Ramiro Moyano try made the last two minutes tense before England closed out the game.

Ryan’s men then edged out reigning series champions Samoa 7-5 at the semi final stage, John Brake’s try and a Gollings conversion seeing them home.