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Scotland outcast Alex Dunbar among 10 players released from Top 14 Brive

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Out-of-favour Scotland midfielder Alex Dunbar is on the hunt for a new club after being released by Brive, the Top 14 outfit coached by ex-Ireland and Lions lock Jeremy Davidson. The 2019/20 top-flight season was terminated on Thursday, French officials finally admitting defeat in their quest to eventually restart the suspended season. 

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Brive have now quickly come out of the blocks, revealing the identity of the ten players who are exiting Stade Amedee-Domenech. That exodus will include Dunbar, the 30-year-old who won the last of his 31 Test caps with a November 2018 appearance versus Argentina at Murrayfield.

Dunbar spent nine seasons at Glasgow Warriors, winning a PRO12 title in 2015, but he fell out of favour with Dave Rennie. After wrapping up last season with a couple of appearances in Newcastle’s relegation fall from the Gallagher Premiership, he headed to France in the hope that his one-year deal would be the spark that would revive his career. 

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He told RugbyPass last December that he felt the switch was paying dividends, describing himself as settled and content, but it now remains to be seen where he pitches up for the 2020/21 season. 

He made seven top 14 appearances for Brive is now on an extensive departures list that also features wingers Guillaume Namy (31) and Franck Romanet (34), hooker Francois Da Ros (36), loosehead Karlen Asieshvili (33), second row Jan Uys (26) and Richard Fourcade (27), tighthead James Johnston (34), back Rory Scholes (27), and centre Alban Ramette (21). 

Samoan international Johnston is moving to PRO D2 club Rouen, who are coach by ex-England scrum-half Richard Hill. 

Meanwhile, ex-Fijian international Leone Ravuetaki is among the five departures from second-tier Biarritz. Elvis Levi, Pierre Bernard and Nick Smith have also left, with Asier Usarraga joining top-flight Bayonne.

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J
JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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