It's make-your-mind-up time, Delve

It looks as if Gloucester can prepare to say goodbye to joint captain Gareth Delve, but the feeling amongst fans is that if he’s going to leave the club can he make the decision sooner rather than later because everybody in the Kingsholm stands is sick and tired of the longest “will-he-won’t he?” saga for years.

With winger Lesley Vainikolo becoming the 15^th member of the current senior squad to agree a new contract last weekend, Delve continues to dither over his decision on whether to go to home-town club Cardiff Blues, take a chance on a new life in Australia, or stay with Glaws.

The final option looks as if it's out - he has hardly mentioned the possibility of staying.
The truth is that if – or is it when? – Delve leaves, he will be missed as a squad member and a good player. But he is NOT irreplaceable.
Coach Bryan Redpath knows that the vast majority of his squad for next season is now in place and that, apart from a little bit of tinkering, he and his coaching staff can work with the players as soon as pre-season training starts so that when next season arrives they are fit and in form.

Whether Delve is part of that set-up is now up to him, but if he hasn’t made a decision by the weekend, perhaps he should be left out of the team to play Leeds at Kingsholm on Saturday anyway.
It’s a must-win game and hopefully the team will react in a positive fashion to last weekend’s narrow LV Cup final defeat against Northampton. They are quite capable of getting a result against Leeds without the Welsh international back-row.
Redpath, meanwhile, says he is delighted that Big Les has signed on and he told the Citizen: "He's worked so hard to get back to fitness after his Achilles injury and I think we're just seeing him get back to the form that we know he's capable of.  

"He's been excellent for us in 2010. He's always been capable of finishing off moves but he's also been sucking in defenders and creating space for others.

"It's not just about his contribution on the pitch though, he's a great character around the club, hugely popular with the rest of the squad and it'll be good to have him around for a couple more years."

Leeds have shown signs of a recovery in the second half of the season and they are now off the bottom of the table.
Glaws are only five points ahead despite their own 2010 revival, and if they are to achieve Redpath’s ambition of a play-off place, or even finish in the top six, they are going to need to go some in the remaining six games.