Fissler Confidential: Sale Sharks brace for another Bok exit

Dan du Preez is set to leave Sale Sharks this summer to join his brothers Robert and his twin, Jean-Luc, in playing in France next season.

No.8 Du Preez, 30, who has won six Springbok caps, has made 114 appearances for the Sharks since moving from their United Rugby Championship namesakes in 2019 and will be the last of the trio to depart the club.

Several Top 14 clubs, including Toulon, are looking to bolster their back row next season and have placed him on their shopping list of potential recruits, having sounded him out.

Bath are keen to avoid a problem at tighthead and have made tying England and Lions star Will Stuart down to a new long-term deal a priority.

The Gallagher PREM champions have already lost Thomas Du Toit, who has signed a four-year contract with his former club, the Sharks, and want to avoid anything happening to Stuart, a recruit from Wasps in 2019.

Stuart, who came off the bench for the Lions in three Tests this summer, succeeded Dan Cole as England’s first-choice tighthead and was granted an enhanced Elite Player Squad (EPS) contract in August after missing out 12 months ago.

Harlequins are in discussions with Bristol Bears lock James Dun about moving to the capital from the West Country at the end of the season.

Dun, 26, who can also play in the back row, has made 55 appearances for the club and spent the 2022–2023 campaign in the Championship with Jersey Reds, and has been a regular starter since returning from the Channel Islands.

The son of former Bristol captain Andy, who played more than 170 games for the club, is an England U20 international who signed his first professional contract with the club in 2017, making his debut a season later.

Gloucester tighthead Ciaran Knight is starting to attract plenty of interest from Gallagher PREM rivals who are keen to sign him up for next season.

Knight, 27, who can also play at loosehead, has clocked up over 110 appearances for the Cherry and Whites but could be on the move in the summer if they don’t hold off interest.

PREM champions Bath, Exeter Chiefs and Sale Sharks are all looking at Knight, who made his debut off the bench in April 2017 and is due to make his fifth start of the season at Sandy Park this weekend.

Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam has been so impressed with Argentina outside centre Matias Moroni that he wants to keep him at Ashton Gate for the rest of the season.

The former Leicester Tigers and Newcastle star, who made his debut against Gloucester last week, was drafted in because of an injury crisis among the Bears’ back line, and Lam wants him to stay until next summer.

“He got in on a short-term contract. He is class. I am looking to keep him for the whole season,” Lam told Fissler Confidential earlier this week.

The NSW Waratahs have secured the signing of Sydney scrum-half Angus Grover, who is rated as one of the brightest age-group prospects in Australia.

Grover captained the Australian Under-18s side that defeated New Zealand 2–0 in the two-match series this year and also led St Ignatius College, Riverview, to win a GPS Premiership title.

“Securing him on a long-term contract, we are confident that we can now develop him with time in hand to the next level needed at Super Rugby, and he has an exciting future if he puts in the work,” said Waratahs boss Dan McKellar.

Toulon have agreed a one-year extension with Grenoble lock Giorgi Javakhia after signing him this week as a medical joker for Matthias Halagahu.

JIFF-qualified Javakhia, 29, who scored three tries in five games for Grenoble in the Pro D2 this season, couldn’t be stopped from leaving with his contract set to run out at the end of the season.

Sources in France have indicated that Javakhia, who has spent the whole of his career in the French second tier with Lyon, Aurillac and Grenoble, will be staying on with Les Rouge et Noir for next season as part of the deal.

Béziers are fighting to retain Tongan-born back row Otunuku Pauta, who is attracting considerable interest from Top 14 clubs eager to sign him for next season.

Pauta, 26, who plays at No. 8 and blindside flanker, has scored one try in six appearances for Rory Teague’s side this season and has scored ten times in 42 games since arriving from Perth Bayswater three years ago.

Bayonne are rumoured to be one of the clubs monitoring his form, with other Top 14 rivals also reportedly keeping an eye on him.

Former Georgia captain and Black Lions star Merab Sharikadze has switched from rugby to MMA, a Georgian Rugby Union official has confirmed.

Sharikadze has posted a video of himself looking mean and moody beside an MMA fighting cage, fuelling rumours on social media that he’s taken on a new challenge.

The powerful inside centre, who started his career with a stint at Gloucester, was one of the main driving forces behind Georgia’s rise up the rankings, winning 71 caps for the Lelos and making almost 100 appearances in the Pro D2.

Crack NRL outfit the Parramatta Eels were at Bath’s Farleigh House training headquarters this week as special guests of head of rugby Johann van Graan.

The Eels are coached by Jason Ryles, who has been an assistant coach for both England and Australia union sides, and wanted to learn from the PREM champions about how they created a title-winning environment.

Meanwhile, former Bath and England star Jonathan Joseph, who last month announced his retirement from playing due to injury, has also been spotted around his old stomping ground in his role as a coach at Bath University.