Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Speculation that Duhan van der Merwe could join Racing has ended

(Photo by Pablo Gasparini/ AFP via Getty Images)

The rumoured move of Duhan van der Merwe from cash-strapped Worcester to Racing 92 has reportedly ended with the Parisians instead turning their attentions to bringing in Christian Wade, the ex-England international who guested for them at a recent sevens rugby event in Pau.

ADVERTISEMENT

With new signing Regan Grace unavailable until 2023 following his serious injury last month when playing for St Helens in the English Super League, a vacancy exists on the Racing roster for the new Top 14 campaign that began with last weekend’s home win over Castres.

The issue regarding the delayed payment of salaries at Worcester opened the door to players there opting to leave due to breach of contract by the club.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

It was this free agency potential that piqued the Racing interest regarding the possibility of bringing in van der Merwe, the South African whose change of allegiance to Scotland put him on track to play for the 2021 Lions who toured his native country.

However, this alleged recent flirtation between Racing and van der Merwe has ended (he has also been linked with Toulon), with the Parisian club instead poised to bring in Wade who scored two tries in his first sevens match for them last month. That was his first rugby match of any kind since October 2018 when he exited Wasps to try his luck in the American NFL with Buffalo Bills.

Related

With ex-All Blacks midfielder Francis Saili quickly recruited from Biarritz following the sad retirement this week of Virimi Vakatawa due to a heart condition, the next player recruitment on the Racing agenda is getting Wade on board on a one-year deal. A report in Friday’s edition of Midi Olympique read: “The English winger Christian Wade (31 years old, 1 selection) will also join the group.

“The man with 99 tries with the Wasps, who ended his rugby career in 2018 to join the Buffalo Bills NFL (American football) club, had expressed the wish to return to rugby union. As a result, the track leading to Scottish international Duhan van der Merwe (27, 18 caps) has been buried.

ADVERTISEMENT

“What do Saili and Wade have in common? Both would only have signed up for one season. No coincidence, as a reflection is currently being carried out in the Hauts-de-Seine on the three-quarter line.”

This reported signing by Racing of Wade is at odds, though, with what the player tweeted last week about his situation. He posted on September 1: “My return to rugby is imminent…” He then teasingly added: “London.” This resulted in followers on his account believing he had signed for an English capital city club, but Friday’s report from France now suggests otherwise.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 48 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 58 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Everyone is saying the same thing after agonising England loss Everyone is saying the same thing after agonising England loss
Search