'We both agreed on this': The Christ Tshiunza contract length explained

Wales international Christ Tshiunza visited the Sale Sharks training base at Carrington yesterday to put the touches to his summer move from Exeter Chiefs.

Tshiunza, 24, has struggled with a foot injury for the past year and has played only four times this season, the most recent in the PREM Rugby Cup final defeat to Leicester Tigers and was in Greater Manchester to complete a medical.

The 6’6” lock has signed an initial one-year contract, but Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson has said that there is a two-way option and believes it will be extended before the end of the year.

“The one-year is as much for him as it is for us. It is a long way from where he has been in Exeter and where he was brought up. We want him for a period of time, with him finding form, relocating, and getting married this summer.

“We both agreed on this; that, in the long term, this has to be the right move on all accounts, and I believe it will be. This just gives him and us the opportunity to make sure it is.

“It is a two-way option, and I do not think it will last past December. We will be able to confirm by then, and I am sure if it goes as we want it to go, he will stay here for a good while,” said Sanderson.

Tshiunza, who won the last of his 15 Welsh caps in November 2024, wasn’t offered a new deal by the Chiefs, who are battling to stay within EQP regulations, according to boss Rob Baxter.

“Christ has been a good player for us. He’s still got a lot of good rugby left in him. But he’s non-EQP. We’ve got to get the balance across the squad so that we make sure we hit our EQP numbers and develop the squad as well as we can.

“Obviously, Daff (Dafydd Jenkins) and Zambo (Andrea Zambonin) are playing very, very well for us. But that’s two non-EQP locks there, straight away. Tom Hooper is playing fantastically well and is non-EQP. Our front row has some non-EQP guys there.

“We’ve got a lot of good non-EQP players around that pack of forwards, and we just can’t keep stacking them in there. It’s one of those scenarios where we’ve got to try and get value across the squad and hit our EQP numbers, and Christ kind of just falls out of that.”