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Fissler Confidential: Radwan eyed to replace exit-bound England wing
By Neil Fissler
Gloucester are keeping tabs on Newcastle Falcons flyer Adam Radwan, but it is not a move that they are planning for next season. Instead, they want him to move to Kingsholm ahead of the 2025-2026 season.
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Radwan, who is due at a Great Britain training camp ahead of the summer Paris Olympics, is still under contract to the Falcons, and it would need a transfer fee to buy him out of his deal.
Fissler Confidential understands that the Cherry and Whites, who are ninth in the Gallagher Premiership table, are monitoring several players under contract for next season.
Saracens have called off their search for a new winger, so it may not necessarily mean that former England winger Jonny May is heading to the Premiership champions after confirming that he is leaving Gloucester this summer.
Fissler Confidential reported in March that talks between May and Gloucester were deadlocked and that he was set to leave, but he now says that he is likely to be heading abroad rather than extending his Premiership career.
Saracens were looking for a winger to replace Sean Maitland and Alex Lewington, but they are now looking to pick up a bargain by spending £100,000 on a new lock. Mark McCall also has a tighthead prop on his wanted list.
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Wallaby forward Ned Hanigan is set to leave the NSW Waratahs and move to French Pro D2 promotion hopefuls Provence when his Rugby Australia contract runs out at the end of the season.
Hanigan, 29, who can play blindside flanker, No.8 and lock, has made 28 appearances for the Wallabies and has been offered a national top-up contract but is ready to turn it down in favour of a move to the French second tier.
He is in his second spell at the Waratahs, with a couple of seasons in Japan at Kurita Water Gush in between, and made two Australia A appearances last summer.
Veteran Samoan prop Logovi’i Mulipola, who has spent this season on the books of Premiership champions, is looking to extend his playing career for another year despite celebrating his 37th birthday in March.
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The Leicester Tigers legend began his Welford Road career in 2012 before moving on to Newcastle, Gloucester, Montpellier, and then Saracens, whom he initially joined last December as short-term injury cover before it was extended.
Mulipola, who can play tighthead and loosehead, has made six appearances for Saracens but would also consider a switch of career and make the move into scrum coaching if he cannot play on.
Rob Baxter has made recruiting a new centre his priority with doubts if two his his 30 year-olds, Rory O’Loughlin and Ollie Devoto, will still be at Sandy Park next season.
Baxter admits that the Chiefs are going with a smaller squad next season but will give priority to the younger players that they have already got at the club.
“We are not trying to bring in a load of journeymen. We are going to let them play. We feel like we have got a good academy group over the next two, three or four years, so we don’t want to block their pathways,” he said.
Perpignan have joined the race to land Munster centre Antone Frisch but Toulon are the favourites to sign him if they can agree a fee for the final year of his contract with the IRFU.
Toulon are continuing to negotiate a buyout with Munster, but Perpignan are waiting in the wings and is looking to step in and attempt to do a deal if the move to the Côte d’Azur doesn’t materialise.
Frisch, who qualifies for Ireland through his grandmother, has pledged his international allegiances to France, but Toulon aren’t keen on meeting the £500,000 asking price to release him from his obligations.
Bordeaux are still pressing ahead with plans to sign Scotland lock Jonny Gray despite him being released by Exeter Chiefs after missing the whole of this season with a knee injury.
Gray hasn’t played since damaging a kneecap during the Chiefs’ Investec Champions Cup semi-final defeat by La Rochelle at the end of last season, and last week, it was announced has left the Devon-based club three months early.
Bordeaux will be losing Thomas Jolmès, Kane Douglas and Jandré Marais this summer and have no plans to pull the plug on the signing of Gray, who is now focusing on getting himself fully fit, according to the Chiefs.
Harlequins, who are losing four experienced players at the end of the season, are still hunting for replacements after putting an inside centre and a tighthead on their shopping list.
Quins have set the alarm bells ringing among their fanbase because they are yet to announce any signings for next season despite losing Andre Esterhuizen from their midfield and tightheads Will Collier and Lovejoy Chawatama from their front row.
But we understand that the club have no plans to replace Italian international Louis Lynagh who has signed on to play for hometown club Benetton next season.
Cardiff appeared to drop a massive hint about the future career plans of Wales star Mason Grady after he featured heavily in a video released by the URC outfit advertising season tickets for next season.
Grady, who is out of contract with Cardiff this summer, has been a target for several Premiership clubs, including Bath and Exeter Chiefs, who have been keen to lure him away from the Arms Park.
But his appearance in the video has been taken as a sign that an announcement that he is staying in the Welsh capital to continue his international career.
Not sure Frisch will ever make the French team with Depoortère and Costes waiting in the wings to take over from Danty and Fickou.