Amid odd Toulon statements, speculation mounts around club's two biggest signing
It’s no huge surprise, given the huge amount of money sloshing about, that the Top 14 is a storm-tossed maelstrom of rumour and speculation. Some of it is way off the mark. Some of it turns out to be entirely accurate.
Right now, little more than a month before the new Top 14 season kicks off, two clubs are at the centre of three player mysteries in Malakai Fekitoa, Semi Radradra, and Johan Goosen.
Much of the current rugby talk in France – despite some fairly heavy and insistent denials from his agent – is all about whether sometime All Black Malakai Fekitoa will head to Toulon at the end of the Super Rugby season.
It’s no secret that the player has been a long-term target for the club. A deal seemed set in unofficial stone until the player’s 14-minute cameo in the third Test against the Lions. Then, doubt, apparently, crept in.
President Mourad Boudjellal reignited the Fekitoa speculation fire at a fan event earlier this week when he declared that the ‘imminent arrival of a world champion All Black centre’, would be ‘the biggest coup of the summer transfer market’.
Forty-eight hours later, the club poured cold water on its owner’s provocative come-on, insisting in an official statement that no player news can be officially considered official until it is officially announced – which Boudjellal’s comments, apparently, were not – and that anything prior to an official announcement, should one be made officially, was nothing more than wild and unsubstantiated speculation.
Following Toulon’s Fekitoa logic, there is no official news, either, about forgotten signing, Parramatta flyer Semi Radrada.
The player’s management team are clear that he will head to France in September.
Incorrecte, Radradra venu a Toulon en Septembre. @RugbyramaFR
— Next Generation Sports (@Next_G_Sports) July 18, 2017
So is Radradra. He told Australia’s Daily Telegraph that he was looking forward to heading to France at the end of the NRL season, when he also shattered Fijian hopes that he would join the national side for the rugby league World Cup.
So far, however, Toulon have remained stonily silent. And Radrada’s name was noticeably absent from the list of squad players announced at the same fan event that prompted the new feeding frenzy over Fekitoa. Official announcements, etc…
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Paris, there’s a hint that Racing 92 and South African utility back Johan Goosen may have mended the bridges they had apparently not just burned but nuked, dissolved in acid and buried in concrete midway through last season.
Unlike Fekitoa and Radrada, no agents are visibly involved. Like Toulon, the club has made no official announcement. But the player’s bio is on the squad page of club’s website for the 2017/18 season.
The 24-year-old – who was voted Top 14 player of the 2016/17 season following a Brennus-winning campaign – suddenly quit Racing in December, despite earlier signing a contract extension to remain at the club until 2020.
He announced his retirement rather than continue to pick up the reported €40,000 a month his five-year Racing contract would have earned him, and became commercial director of a stud farm in his native South Africa for a reported 10% of his previous salary.
In March, rumours surfaced that Goosen was reconsidering his decision. Some even speculated he was ready to make a shock return to the Top 14 and the club he had suddenly quit. That never happened. But last month, French sports newspaper L’Equipe tracked him down in Bloemfontein, where they took photographs of him practising his kicking while sporting the shorts of his former (and possibly future) club.
It’s worth repeating that, as with the Toulon duo, there is no official news from the club on Goosen’s future. And French rugby media would have exploded if he had been spotted at the club’s Plessis-Robinson training ground. They got excited enough over the Bloemfontein pictures.
The image on the website may be there in error. But it has been up a while. It may be a subtle reminder to other clubs and rugby agencies that there’s – officially at least – unfinished legal business over Goosen’s December departure.
It may be that there is some huge news still to come.
Such is the Top 14. Such is modern, professional rugby. The only truth is that, sometimes, we just have to wait and see.
Comments on RugbyPass
I bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
4 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
19 Go to comments