Northampton look to beef up pack with 145kg former Junior Bok

Investec Champions Cup finalists Northampton Saints are closing in a deal to sign Stade Francais lock JJ van der Mescht as they look to replace Fijian Drua-bound Temo Mayanavanua.

The 25-year-old former South African U20 international has been a Saints target since impressing director of rugby Phil Dowson in a Champions Cup clash earlier this year.

Pretoria-born Van der Mescht, who stands at 6ft 6 1/2in and weighs 145kg, scored a try in a 45-35 defeat of the Gallagher Premiership side in January, and the long-term plan was for him to qualify for the French national side.

And before influential Fiji lock Mayanavanua announced his departure at the end of the season, the fear at Franklin’s Gardens was that Saints wouldn’t be able to afford both players and stay within the £6.4m salary cap.

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Mayanavanua, who had made 19 appearances this season, scoring one try, said that it was a really tough choice between going home and playing Super Rugby or staying in the East Midlands with the Saints.

Now that Mayanavanua has committed himself to leaving, a major obstacle to a deal has been removed, and it appears that Stade are happy for Van der Mescht to leave the French capital this summer.

Van der Mescht, who was described earlier this year as having the feet of a ballerina when a clip of him dancing in the Stade gym went viral, has scored four tries in 20 games this season.

But he has seemingly fallen out of favour with Paul Gustard, who has only started him once in the five games he has played since Stade were defeated 33-28 by Vannes, who are bottom of the Top 14 in January.

He is due to be under contract to relegation-threatened Stade for another two seasons, but the noises coming out of Stade are that they are willing to do a deal that will let him leave for the deposed Premiership champions.