London Scottish continue to grow their squad for next season with the re-signing of two players from last season.
Scrum Half Ed Hoadley has signed on for another year and back rower Matt Marley will link back up with the 1stXV squad once he has returned from playing in Australia for Northern Suburbs.
Both players extending their contracts will enter their third seasons with the Exiles. Scrum Half Hoadley has been part of all the London Exiles sides after previously playing for London Irish and London Welsh. He arrived at the RAG in the summer of 2016 and made sixteen appearances in his first season. Last season he played nineteen times tussling with now-retired Alex Walker for the starting job.
? | Ed Hoadley #StaysAScot
The scrum half has committed for his 3⃣rd season with @LSFCOfficial ?
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— London Scottish FC (@LSFCOfficial) June 6, 2018
A controlling scrum half, Hoadley will marshall a side around the field and next season he will be looking to add to his tally of two tries across both his seasons in south-west London. Despite being only twenty-four, Hoadley has extensive rugby experience on his CV which will be valuable as a relatively new Exile team comes together for the 2018/19 season.
Hoadley was happy to stay with Scottish and was eager to contribute as best he can. The quick-thinking nine will be competing against Grayson Hart and Josh Barton for the starting jersey.
“I am very pleased to be staying at London Scottish for my third season. This is a club that means a lot to me and I feel it is the best place for me to keep developing on and off the pitch. I look forward to getting started for what should be an exciting year for the club.”
Matt Marley will also be returning to the London Scottish fold next season. Marley is currently down under playing in Sydney’s premier club competition The Shute Shield. Marley is playing for one of the top sides Northern Suburbs, a great experience for a young player who is developing his game.
The Welsh back rower has made twenty-nine appearances for Scottish including seventeen games in the 2017/18 campaign. An impressive quota despite the impressive fellow back rowers Scottish had in their squad with the likes of Joe Atkinson, Danny Kenny, Matt Eliet and Chris Walker.
? | Matt Marley #StaysAScot
The flanker will rejoin the Scots when he returns from @NSRFC_AUS ?? in September ?
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— London Scottish FC (@LSFCOfficial) June 6, 2018
Marley was looking forward to returning to London after his Australian experience. “I am really happy to be coming back to Scottish once I’m finished over here in Australia. I’m really enjoying myself and the brand of rugby in the Shute Shield. Northern Suburbs are a great club and they have made me feel very welcome. Playing during the English off-season is an added bonus, it means I will be firing on all cylinders when I return back to Scottish in September.”
It was clear that Director of Rugby Dave Morris was happy to add another two players to his upcoming squad. “Our 2018/19 squad is really pulling together now” said Morris. “Ed is now very experienced in the Championship and that will be important for our squad next season. He has very good scrum-half basics and in particular his kicking game. His game feel made good strides last season under the tutelage of Jake Sharp. I expect the competition for the 9 shirt to be fierce next season.”
Morris continued, “Matt is a real competitor which I really like. He wants to win and he wants to be a big contributor to that win. He has a very good skill set particularly to exploit broken field play. He is also an intelligent and effective lineout option. Last season he was involved in a lot of games but mainly off the bench so he felt fresh and hungry for more rugby at the end of the season. We have been very bespoke in looking at his development. The opportunity came up to play in Australia and I feel that will be a great experience for Matt’s continued rugby development and life experiences. I have no doubt London Scottish will benefit from this development on his return. Matt will be an excellent ambassador for London Scottish whilst in Australia and this will help add to our global network.”
