Fissler Confidential: Prem rival's failed £800k bid for Marcus Smith

Bristol Bears failed in a bid to sign England fly-half Marcus Smith despite offering him an eye-watering £800,000 a year to move to the West Country when his Harlequins contract runs out at the end of the season.

The Bears have made a top-class fly-half their priority for next season and put a three-year deal on the table, but it wasn’t enough to tempt him into making the same move as Lovejoy Chawatama last summer.

Smith, who also had interest from Top 14 clubs, has put pen to paper on a new deal with Quins until 2028, leaving the Bears and their huge bag of cash to look elsewhere to fill their vacancy.

Sale Sharks scrum-half Raffi is out of contract at the end of the season and is being offered to Premiership rivals Bath and Saracens as he looks to kick-start his career that has been hit by a series of injuries.

Charlton-born Quirke, 23, has only started 20 games for the Sharks. He broke into the England squad under Eddie Jones, winning two caps in November 2021, scoring a try against South Africa.

He is yet to play a game for the Sharks this season after having an operation to insert a screw into his wrist and is due to make his comeback within the next few weeks.

Pau gazumped Top 14 rivals Bordeaux Begles to win the race to land Argentina hooker Julian Montoya when his contract with Leicester Tigers runs out at the end of the season.

RugbyPass exclusively revealed the move this week after beating off interest from Bordeaux, Lyon, and Perpignan. All three held talks with Montoya, who is closing in on winning a century of international caps.

Our friends at Midi Olympique have reported that Les Sectionnistes put a three-year deal on the table to lure him to the shadow of the Pyrenees, which was a year longer than Bordeaux, and it clinched his signature.

Springbok loosehead prop Ntuthuko Mchunu is weighing up an offer to swap his home town club, the Sharks, and make a move to the Stormers when his contract runs out at the end of the season.

Maritzburg College Mchunu, 25, has won three Springbok caps, including playing against Wales and Portugal in the summer has made 73 appearances for the Sharks.

He came off the bench for the Sharks Challenge Cup Final win over Gloucester last season and had moved swiftly through the Sharks ranks after making his debut in 2019 is due to decide in the next few weeks.

Harlequins are set to offer England loosehead Fin Baxter, who is out of contract at the end of the season, a new long-term deal that will keep him at the Twickenham Stoop for the foreseeable future.

Baxter, 22 – who was nominated for the RPA Young Player of the Year award last season, missing out to Exeter Chiefs flyer Immanuel Feyi-Waboso – won his first two England caps in New Zealand in the summer.

Quins’ bid to re-sign him hasn’t been helped by the departure of his agent, Mark Spoors, from agency Wasserman. Spoors started with Sports Masters International in 2002 before founding Big Red Management a year later.

Montpellier lock Paul Willemse will find out next week if he will be forced into an early retirement after suffering another concussion against Stade Francais last weekend.

The Pretoria-born French international, 31, who played for the Lions, the Bulls and Grenoble before moving to Montpellier in June 2015, is under contract to the club until the end of the season.

Willemse, who was concussed five times last season, suffered his latest in a clash with JJ Van Der Mescht and admitted pre-season that another would end his career will have a medical examination before a final decision is made.

Heinz Lemoto, who is tipped to become Australia’s next superstar, is set to wait until next year to decide if he will be playing union or league when he leaves school.

Lemoto plays union at Scots College and league for the Penrith Panthers, and he was the star on Australia’s recent under-18 tour of New Zealand.

The No. 8 is in the final year of his education at Scots, and he isn’t in a rush and is likely to wait until he can speak to the Panthers rivals under NRL rules in April before he decides about his next move.

Wales and Lions winger Josh Adams admits that he would consider a move to Japan when his contract with Cardiff ends after hearing Liam Williams talk about his experience in the Far East.

Adams, who came close to joining French club Lyon two years ago, says that he loved Japan after nine weeks there during the 2019 World Cup and would love to return.

“It’s definitely something I would consider. It’s such a cool place. Maybe in a couple of years, if there was an opportunity to do it, then I would certainly consider it,” he told a Welsh podcast.