Jonny Gray leaves Bordeaux with immediate effect with new deal done

Scotland lock Jonny Gray has left European champions Bordeaux-Begles with immediate effect in order to join Top 14 strugglers Perpignan until the end of the season.

In a statement issued by Bordeaux, the move has been made at the 32-year-old’s request, which means he has played his last game for the club with his contract expiring at the end of the season.

Perpignan have also confirmed the release of fly-half Hugo Reus who only arrived at the club in December in a deal until the end of the season.

Reus, who was due to join Bordeaux in the summer, will now swap places with Gray, joining as a medical joker. The 22-year-old Reus will provide cover in the midfield for Joey Carbery, who suffered an ACL injury in February, and Nicolas Depoortère, who has undergone shoulder surgery after sustaining an injury against Scotland in the Guinness Six Nations.

Perpignan are also running thin in the second-row and back-row due to injuries, with Gray’s longstanding Scotland team-mate Jamie Ritchie one of those sidelined at that Stade Aimé Giral after fracturing his leg against England in the Six Nations.

Fixture

Top 14

Perpignan

36 - 20

Full-time

Toulon

All Stats and Data

The 81-cap international, who was part of Scotland’s Six Nations squad despite not playing, will be thrust straight into a relegation scrap with the Catalan outfit. Perpignan have been cut adrift from the top 12 teams in the league, with 22 points separating them from 12th place Bayonne.

While there is a 12-point gap between them and bottom-place Montauban, who are likely to face automatic relegation, Perpignan are still facing the prospect of playing the ‘access match’ against the runner-up of Pro D2.

Gray has spent the last season-and-a-half on the Atlantic coast, winning his second Investec Champions Cup title last season, though he did not feature in the final. His last appearance for the club came on January 24, where he started in a 28-33 loss to Stade Francais at home at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Perpignan face Toulon this weekend in the Top 14.