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Fissler Confidential: Owen Farrell's replacement... and a Bok rebuffing
Toulon and Montpellier are among the Top 14 clubs exploring the possibility of taking Munster outside centre Antoine Frisch back to France despite him having another year left on his contract.
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Fontainebleau-born Frisch, who was educated at Loughborough University and moved to Munster from Bristol Bears in 2022, remains eligible to play for Ireland after not winning a French cap against England last week.
The Federation Francaise de Rugby are keen for Frisch, the 27-year-old who has scored four tries in 15 appearances for Munster this season, to move to a French club this summer despite it likely to cost a six-figure fee.
Gloucester are stepping up their attempts to sign another England-qualified back-three player amid rumours that contract talks with veteran England flyer Jonny May are deadlocked.
The 2019 Rugby World Cup runner-up, who celebrates his 34th birthday on April 1, has had talks with Saracens which would allow him to be based in London for media opportunities.
The Cherry and Whites, who have signed Christian Wade to replace Louis Rees-Zammit, are working quickly to get someone else into the club and have cast admiring glances in the direction of Regan Grace.
Tonga international full-back Telusa Veainu is keen to stay in the Gallagher Premiership when his one-year contract with Sale Sharks runs out this summer.
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The former New Zealand U20s international played in Supr Rugby before enjoying a five-year stint with Leicester Tigers. He has also played in France for three seasons with Stade Francais.
Veainu, who can also play on both wings, has a couple of very lucrative offers from Japan Rugby League One. He doesn’t want to uproot his young family from the UK and is ready to listen to offers from the top flight.
Saracens are close to reaching an agreement to sign highly-rated Crusaders fly-half Fergus Burke, as Mark McCall steps up his bid to replace former England captain Owen Farrell.
The 24-year-old Burke was on Gregor Townsend’s radar earlier this year when Scottish Rugby made him a big-money offer for him to join Glasgow Warriors and switch his international allegiances to Scotland.
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As reported by Fissler Confidential earlier this month, McCall has already lined up Newcastle Falcons starlet Louie Johnson and is now close to securing Burke, who is currently out of action with an achilles injury.
Montpellier have dramatically called off a move for former Springboks fly-half Curwin Bosch despite being in advanced talks to sign him from United Rugby Championship strugglers the Sharks this summer.
The 26-year-old Bosch is due to be under contract to the Durban franchise until 2026 but was keen to move to France to kick-start a career that brought him three caps in 2017 but has stalled in the last couple of seasons.
But Montpellier, who are remodelling their squad for next season after a struggling campaign in the Top 14, are now ready to look elsewhere for another playmaker.
Former England tighthead prop Paul Hill is set to swap Northampton Saints for the URC next season after agreeing on a move to the Scottish capital Edinburgh.
The 29-year-old Hill was born in Germany but raised in Doncaster before starting his career in outposts like Otley, Darlington Mowden Park, and Yorkshire Carnegie before moving to Northampton nine years ago.
His time at Franklin’s Gardens brought him eight England caps and he is closing in on 200 appearances for Saints but, according to sources on both sides of the border, he has sealed a move to Edinburgh this summer.
Bristol Bears, who are attempting to move away from the Galacticos business model, are set to move for highly-rated Leicester Tigers scrum-half Sam Edwards as they look to bring in younger players.
The ex-England U20s international has made 13 appearances in three seasons for the Tigers, scoring two tries and came off the bench in the Premiership Rugby Cup final defeat to Gloucester last weekend.
The York-born half-back has been playing for Championship strugglers Cambridge this season, which has restricted his Tigers appearances to four in the Premiership Cup.
Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter admits that the club hopes to issue an update on the future of Scotland lock Jonny Gray, who has missed the whole season with a knee injury.
It is believed that Gray has agreed to join Bordeaux but he hasn’t played since damaging a kneecap during Exeter’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat by La Rochelle at the end of last season.
Baxter said: “We will probably get an update in the next week or two about exactly where things are with him. I know it’s a pressing thing for some people, but it’s a relatively delicate thing when it’s medical.”
Steve Diamond, who says he will be shipping as many as 20 players out of Newcastle Falcons in the next few weeks, has been linked with a move for former England winger Ruaridh McConnochie.
The 32-year-old has only played three times for Bath this season after dislocating his shoulder against Sale but he returned to play in their friendlies against Gloucester and Leinster.
The Olympic sevens silver medalist, who won two senior England caps before switching his allegiances to Scotland, could be a target for Diamond, who will be in his element wheeling and dealing over the coming months.
The chat around the southern hemisphere has been that the Jaguares, who are set to rejoin Super Rugby in 2026, could be asked to return a year earlier than anticipated after the demise of the Melbourne Rebels.
Bringing the Jaguares, who played in the competition between 2016 and 2020, back a year early was high on the agenda when the Super Rugby board got together in Melbourne earlier in the month.
But several leading player agents have told Fissler Confidential that no moves have been made to sign any players. With players being snapped up and time running out their return appears unlikely to happen in 2025.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI 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.
31 Go to comments