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Ex-England back-rower Teimana Harrison linked with move to France

(Photo by Getty Images)

PRO D2 club Provence are reportedly interested in bolstering their pack with two players who have huge Gallagher Premiership experience, Northampton back-rower Teimana Harrison and ex-Harlequins lock Tevita Cavubati who is currently at Perpignan. 

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A deal for ex-England international Harrison would be a huge development for the French club who are currently placed ninth in the second tier. 

It was last month when the 29-year-old from New Zealand was linked with a switch to Leicester from Northampton where his current deal is set to expire at the end of this season, coinciding with the departure of Chris Boyd as their director of rugby. 

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Harrison, who was tempted to follow the path fellow Kiwi Dylan Hartley took at Northampton when they met at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, was capped on five occasions by England boss Eddie Jones in 2016.

It was September 2020 when Harrison spoke with RugbyPass about his lingering England hopes. “That is always the ambition – until I retire I’ll be gunning for an England spot again,” he said. “But no, I don’t think I will be in the mix for that. No contact from Eddie at the minute but that is down to me, I haven’t been putting in the performances that warrant an England call.”

A switch to France would extinguish any forlorn hope that Harrison still retains for a Test level recall and Midi Olympique has reported that he is in “advanced discussion” about a move from the top flight in England to the French tier two. “Provence Rugby is keen to strengthen its package of forwards,” it reported. “According to our information, the Provencal club is in advanced discussions with two internationals.

“The English back row Teimana Harrison, who is at the end of his contract with Northampton and has announced his departure, would have recently met with Provence. Second row Tevita Cavubati (34 years old, 30 selections) is also on the radar even if the Fijian is engaged until June 2023 with Perpignan.

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“In addition, the Provencal club must soon formalise the constitution of its management for next season. There are in advanced contact with Stephane Glas and Julien Brugnaut, but other names continue to circulate (Rory Teague, Patrice Collazo etc), thus maintaining the suspense on the subject.”

Midi Olympique also mentioned a report from the UK that Semesa Rokoduguni is in “advanced contact with Montauban” about a move away from Bath following a decade-long stint there. The winger was apparently close to joining Beziers two years ago and a switch to Pro D2 would bring him close to Peni Rokoduguni, his younger brother, who has been playing for Colomiers since 2019.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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