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Fissler Confidential: Irish talisman's pre-RWC exit, Manu on the move
By Neil Fissler
Jamison Gibson-Park, who is out of contract at the end of the season, is being tempted to leave United Rugby Championship champions Leinster with a massive offer from breakaway competition R360.
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Auckland-born Gibson-Park, who is 33 next February, has made almost 160 appearances for Leinster, and his name has been circulating around clubs in PREM Rugby and France for the last couple of months.
The Ireland scrum-half, who played three Tests for the British & Irish Lions against Australia in the summer, is a target for R360, who are targeting Barcelona’s Nou Camp for their launch in October 2026, despite a series of recent setbacks.
Bayonne are risking losing former England star Manu Tuilagi, who is out of contract at the end of the season, but reports linking him with a return to Leicester Tigers are a long way off target.
Tuilagi, 34, has been at his brilliant best since joining Bayonne from Sale Sharks at the start of last season and has clocked up 25 appearances in all competitions for the Pyrénées-Atlantiques-based outfit.
Fissler Confidential understands that breakaway competition R360 are interested while his performances for the Basque side haven’t gone unnoticed among clubs in Japan Rugby League One who are writing their shopping lists.
Wallaby star Max Jorgensen has been offered a new five-year deal to ward off interest from the Sydney Roosters and R360 as Rugby Australia looks to tie down one of their brightest young talents.
The Sydney Morning News has reported that Jorgensen is only the third player ever to have been offered such a long deal after Lote Tuqiri in 2007 and then Michael Hooper in 2018.
Jorgensen still has another year left on his contract, but it was widely expected that the Roosters would make a third attempt to secure him after failing with bids in 2022 and again two years later.
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Edinburgh have opened contract negotiations with Scotland A international blindside flanker Liam McConnell, who is out of contract at the end of the season and is beginning to attract interest from PREM Rugby sides.
McConnell, 21, joined the senior academy of his hometown club in 2023 and is set to make his third start of the season in the URC clash against Benetton this weekend, having scored a try in their opening day defeat to Zebre.
Edinburgh are looking to secure him early amid interest from Gloucester, against whom he made his Edinburgh debut in the Challenge Cup last December, while Harlequins are also interested in signing him.
Phil Dowson is closing in on agreeing a new deal with Northampton Saints, with his current contract set to run out at the end of the season.
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Since he became Saints’ director of rugby, Dowson has led them to a PREM title and an Investec Champions Cup final and is out of contract with right-hand man Sam Vesty, but has told Fissler Confidential that discussions are advancing.
“There has been lots of discussion. It’s pushing along, and we’re getting to a point where we’re all set,” he told us this week.
Joseph Dweba admits that Devon’s sandy beaches have become a no-go area after the hardest pre-season of his life, after joining Exeter Chiefs from the Stormers.
“Pre-season here was tough, especially the beach sessions — oh, whoa. The sand was in my dreadlocks. It was terrible. It was an eye-opener.
“In South Africa, I was mainly with the senior squad, so I was away and missed pre-season, but this time I was in it fully. Any time I see the beach now, I start getting hot flushes and need to leave,” he told Fissler Confidential.
Pat Lam admits that the Bristol Bears have found it difficult trying to persuade clubs to loan them players to see them through their current injury crisis.
Lam says that they have enquired about players, but have been told that they aren’t available, by clubs who are reluctant to let anybody leave in the opening weeks of the season.
“Nobody is keen or willing, even though they have got players who aren’t playing, to loan players. There are a lot of names that are there. It’s whether you can get them,” Lam told Fissler Confidential this week.
Northampton look to be facing a battle to keep their squad together beyond the end of the season, despite the recent success of seeing off a bid from R360 to land England and Lions fly-half Fin Smith.
Dowson said earlier this week after they retained Alex Mitchell, “We’ve got a few lads who we’re still working through and trying to keep the group together.”
Another player attracting interest from elsewhere is Newcastle-upon-Tyne-born tighthead Trevor Davison, who is on the shopping list of his former club, Newcastle Red Bulls.
Zack Henry has been told that he will be released when his three-year deal with Top 14 big guns Stade Francais runs out at the end of the season.
Brighton-born fly-half, who has also played full-back, Henry, who celebrated his 31st birthday at the start of the month, became the first Englishman to play in Fédérale 1, Pro D2, the Premiership and Top 14.
The former Great Britain sevens star started his career in Rouen and Nevers, then spent a season with Leicester Tigers, before returning to France with Pau and now Stade, where he has played twice this season.