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Fissler Confidential: Lion to leave Scotland, what Exeter will pay Len Ikitau
By Neil Fissler
Scotland and Lions openside Hamish Watson looks set to end his 14-year association with Edinburgh this summer and has been attracting significant interest from clubs in Japan’s Rugby League One.
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Manchester-born club legend Watson, who has won 59 caps for Scotland and played 169 games for Edinburgh, voted the 2021 Six Nations player of the championship but is set to uproot his young family after being forced out of the door in the Scottish capital.
The whispers are that after being a regular at the start of the season, Edinburgh stood him down from selection before Christmas to prevent him from hitting an appearance clause in his contract, which would have automatically activated a clause for another year.
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Mystery surrounds Conor Murray’s future after Munster and Ireland have announced that he will leave the province when his contract expires at the end of the season to pursue a playing opportunity abroad.
The Irish Rugby Union had earlier announced that Murray, Peter O’Mahony and Cian Healy would be retiring from international rugby after the Six Nations and the latter two would be hanging up their boots this summer.
But Fissler Confidential understands that scrum-half Murray, who is 36 in April, doesn’t currently have any offers on the table for next season, and sources had expected him to retire as well.
Harlequins are still looking to sign a tighthead for next season after Italian international Simone Ferrari turned down a move to London and has decided to sign a new deal with United Rugby Championship Benetton.
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Ferrari, 30, who has won 62 test caps for his out-of-contract at the end of the season and had been talking to Quins about a move to the Premiership but has now decided to extend his ten-year stay at Benetton.
It means that Quins who have signed locks Guido Petti and Kieran Treadwell will now switch their attentions elsewhere, and they are also looking to add a hooker to their squad before the start of next season.
Newcastle Falcons have enquired about Bath winger Ruaridh McConnochie returning to the city where he won the first of his two England caps against Italy at St James Park in September 2019.
McConnochie, 33, who was an Olympic silver medalist in 2016, has scored eight tries in 11 games for Bath this season, and Steve Diamond is keen to add to his firepower, having let Adam Radwan move to Leicester Tigers.
McConnochie, chairman of the Rugby Players Association, started out at the University of Gloucestershire and Nuneaton RFC before joining Hartpury College and signing a one-year extension at Bath last May.
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Exeter Chiefs are set to pay Len Ikitau £400,000 for his nine-month stint at Sandy Park, and it seems that a whole host of other Wallabies could be flooding abroad when their contracts run out later this year.
Jake Gordon is also in talks about moving to Devon, while Tom Hooper has already announced that he is making the move as well, and Langi Gleeson is heading to Top 14 big spenders Montpellier.
It is understood that fly-half Noah Lolesio, openside Fraser McReight, full-back Tom Wright and lock Nick Frost all have offers on the table from clubs around the world to join them next season.
Bristol Bears are fighting to hang onto highly rated Welsh tighthead Sam Scott after the Wales Rugby Union put him at the top of a list of emerging talent that they want to lure back across the Severn Bridge.
Pontypridd-born Scott, 19, who joined the Bears in April 2024 from the Midland Academy, formally Wasps Academy, has been in superb form for the Wales under-20 side in the U20 Six Nations.
He has started games against France, Italy and Ireland over the last month and was the Man of the Match in their impressive round two win over the Irish and WRU bosses are desperate to get him into one of their regions.
Saracens have raided Exeter Chiefs for former England under-20 tight head Marcus Street, and he will be moving to North London this summer after they meet his demands for a two-year deal.
Street, 26, who joined in 2016, was a Premiership Finalist in 2021, coming off the bench for Harry Williams in the defeat against Harlequins, came through the system at Bicton College, then with Exeter College.
The Chiefs only offered him a one-year deal and were too late to offer him the two years he wanted, as he had already agreed to join the former Premiership and European Champions.
Could London Irish, who last month were bought out of administration by a consortium fronted by F1 legend Eddie Jordan, take one step closer to setting foot on the pitch once again by finding a ground to use?
The whispers are that they could play home games at AFC Wimbledon’s Plough Lane with the Dons’ current tenants, London Broncos, set to activate a break clause in their ten-year lease.
The former Super League outfit moved into the ground in 2022 with break and extension clauses, and moving out could allow the Exiles who have played for a Championship spot in 2025-2026 the chance to move in.
Rob Baxter has left the door open for Wallaby scrum-half Nic White to return to Sandy Park in a coaching capacity after admitting that he failed to tempt him back as a player.
Baxter says that he spoke to White when he launched his bid to sign a scrum-half for next season, but that the veteran star has got his eye on a player-coach role.
“He’s starting to think about combining playing with coaching. We probably need a guy to come in and be absolutely flat-out, and he is not quite ready for another couple of years of that. You might see him here in a coaching someday.”
Former England and Lions winger Mark Cueto is taking a job as an assistant coach with the Sale Sharks women’s team in a shock move the club have announced.
Cueto, who spent the whole of his playing career with the Sharks, scoring 118 tries in 303 appearances before retiring in 2015, joins former team-mate Pete Anglesea, who started working with the women’s section before Christmas.
“During my playing career, I never aspired to be a coach. But I’ve been out of the game ten years now, and it’s only since having kids and watching them start to play rugby that I’ve realised how much I might actually be able to offer.”
