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England's Raffi Quirke nearing Sale Sharks exit to revive career

Raffi Quirke of Sale Sharks during the Investec Champions Cup match between Sale Sharks and RC Toulon at Salford Community Stadium on January 19, 2025 in Salford, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter has made recruiting a new scrum-half a top priority for next season, and the whispers are that he has made a move for former England international Raffi Quirke.

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Quirke, 23, is out of contract with Sale Sharks at the end of the season and had been putting off deciding on his future until the New Year after his once-promising career stalled following a string of injuries.

He has made seven appearances, scoring one try this season after recovering from a second wrist injury, but his future remains unclear after dropping down the pecking order for both club and country.

Quirke scored a match-winning try for England against South Africa in 2021 but has suffered a string of problems, including a broken jaw and a damaged ligament in his foot, and is now the Sharks’ third-choice scrum-half.

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Gus Warr is now firmly established as the Sharks’ first-choice, while Nye Thomas has been the main backup off the bench, meaning that Quirke could be forced to move on to get his career back on track.

He was being considered by Harlequins when they looked at possible replacements for Danny Care before the veteran former England international confirmed that he will be at the Twickenham Stoop next season.

Baxter thought he had solved his problem area when they put a three-year deal in place to bring Scotland international Ben White back from Toulon before the Top 14 side insisted that he see out the remaining year of his contract.

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The Chiefs have recruited Wallaby back-row Tom Hooper from the Waratahs, and Quirke falls into a similar age category and is the kind of player that Baxter has been looking to recruit.

“I’m determined not to get panicked into signing the wrong players. We are only going to approach players to make us better. I’d rather bring in two really high-quality players than four, five or six squad players,” he told RugbyPass.

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JD 18 days ago

Raffi isn't our third choice. When fit he is first choice. He is man who has that 9 shirt for Sale when he is fit. Problem has been he has suffered 1 injury after another so hasn't been able to string together any games for a while.


Is this just speculation, or has he been name checked? Why he would leave Sale, his hometown club, where he is our best 9 and go to Chiefs is beyond me. Sale have a higher ceiling currently, they've locked down lots of young players and our owner has recently become a billionaire... No brainer.

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JW 11 hours ago
France player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

Sorry my delivery on that joke was a bit bland. But to reply to the couple of good points you make, to me it just seemed like they had no plan with why Gatland was staying on. I mean the plan seemed to be “just get us a win against Italy and we can continue on as we are”, which is just terrible if that’s what Gatland was trying to achieve for Wales imo.


Did it just happen to be Italy that he saw his team weren’t able to achieve his vision of success? I mean Italy are a very good side so its by no means a lost cause to not look like world beaters. Sure his focus should have been on more transient factors like growth and style for a full rebuild, not trying to avoid the wooden spoon.


Which brings me to you main point, that would be exactly what the benefit of dropping down a tier would be. A chance to really implement something, get good at it, then take it up a level again once you’re ready. Even for Italy it must have been an incredibly brutal environment to have been trying to develop as a side.


Not saying of course that the other EU teams would be any better, but it might be better for everyone if say ‘years of tough losses’ are shared between countries, rather than see Wales go through this journey two, three, possible four years in a row. Of course the main reason they don’t want to miss just one 6N season is because it would probably tank the game in their country missing out on all that revenue. I have always said they should look at widening the revenue share, there are plenty of competitions that have systems to keep bottom teams competitive, and the 6N would only make more money if it was a tierd competition with prom/rel.

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