Malakai Fekitoa's move to Premiership 'now a certainty' - reports

Former All Black Malakai Fekitoa’s move to the Premiership from Toulon is ‘now a certainty’ according to reports coming out of France.

Fekitoa has been at Toulon for two seasons, but is now set to leave the struggling French giant.

French sports outlet L’Équipe report that Tongan born centre’s switch to Wasps signature will be ‘soon formalised’.

Fekitoa would link up with his former Highlanders team-mate Lima Sopoaga, two key members of the team’s first ever Super Rugby success in 2015. He would also have regularly played against former Hurricanes captain Brad Shields.

Most of the recent transfer rumours linked players with a move out of Wasps, whose much publicised financial predicament and the current lack of a high-level training facility seen as a major issue for its top players.

However, two weeks ago Wasps announced that the club were finalising a planning application to Warwick District Council to build a centre of excellence for rugby.

Earlier this year the Wasps revealed their vision to build a new training ground at the home of Old Leamingtonians RFC on the outskirts of Leamington.

The planning application is the next stage of the exciting development after both Old Leamingtonians RFC and Wasps agreed and finalised legal contracts, providing Wasps with a long lease and the ability to create purpose-built, state-of-the-art facilities. The new-look facilities would include a rugby pitch for every age group at Old Leamingtonians RFC, and a new artificial pitch so matches and training can continue throughout winter.

Fekitoa lifted the World Cup with the All Blacks in 2015, scoring two tries during their title-winning campaign. He has 8 tries in his 24 tests for New Zealand.

The departure represents a massive blow for Toulon, who lost another All Blacks centre, Ma’a Nonu, last year.

The Tongan-born player had also been linked to Northampton Saints and Saracens and would join Wasps for the start of the 2019/20 season and as a result would continue to be ineligible to represent the All Blacks.