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Soyaux-Angouleme confirm the signing of ex-England winger Jonny May

Former England winger Jonny May will play in Pro D2 next season (Photo by Paul Harding/Getty Images)

Jonny May will face his old England teammate Courtney Lawes in next season’s French Pro D2 after he was confirmed on Tuesday evening as a new signing by Soyaux-Angouleme on a two-year deal. The out-of-contract Gloucester winger was originally touted for a second-tier switch across the Channel on June 1 when Fissler Confidential, the weekly RugbyPass transfers column, reported that he was on the club’s recruitment list.

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At the time, the club’s budget was said to be only €5,000 (£4,200) a month for May and that he would potentially hold out for a move instead to Major League Rugby in America after he was told earlier this year that his Gallagher Premiership contract wasn’t being renewed at Kingsholm.

However, the 12th place Pro D2 club have managed to pull off a recruitment coup by persuading the 34-year-old May, the second highest England try-scorer of all time who retired from international rugby at the end of Rugby World Cup 2023, that his future is best served in France and not the USA.

It was Tuesday morning when the French outfit teased that a deal had been done, posting on X: “Men lie, but numbers don’t! 13, 36, 47, 78.”

These numbers – 13, 36, 47 and 78 – all corresponded to figures in May’s stellar career. Thirteen was his number of Rugby World Cup caps, 36 the number of tries he scored for England, 47 the amount of European matches he played, and 78 reflected his tally of Test selections. The social media post added that an announcement was due at 6pm French time and it duly arrived.

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IkeaBoy 14 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Very, very thoughtful piece!


It’s far too much rugby for players as it stands and the new competitions - club world cup and Nations cup - are proposed on the basis it’s the best players competing who will usually be established test players.


An established NH test player is in pre-season from August (at the latest) then going thorough until the following July. They likely will have carried niggles and some injuries into their pre-season. They would then have between 22-30 domestic games if their teams went far and contested finals in say the URC and CC. Although many would have stand down periods, they would still train and be squad ready for all of those games.


Their test commitments across that same time would be 3/4 games (Nov series) then 5 games (6 Nations) with a rest for the July development tours. That rest would only now be once every 4 years with the Lions, Nations Cup and RWC warm-ups occupying the July window.


A squad player at club level would potentially have a full run of games in any given season but run a greater risk of injury the more often they play. They would likely know that form alone wouldn’t get them to the next level and into a national squad. It would be their bodies and their ability to recover quickly and deal with elite level competition. They wouldn’t have the baseline of having played an 11 month season so how could they upsurge a 40 cap player?


I think there will be a huge divide before long between solid club players, who are basically salary men, and the ringfenced test animals who will likely dwindle in numbers as their playing demands increase.

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