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The market for outside centres to become bloodbath as four English club giants compete for talent

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As Gallagher Premiership sides continue to build their squads for the 2019/20 season, it seems the market for outside centres is heating up in English rugby’s top tier competition.

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Per RugbyPass sources, Gloucester, Northampton Saints, Saracens and Wasps are all looking for a big-name addition in the 13 jersey, whilst Bristol Bears and Newcastle Falcons are also keen to add to their options at the position.

Fortunately for the clubs involved, there a number of enticing options coming off of contract at the end of the 2018/19 season.

The three biggest names in contract years in the Premiership would be Jonathan Joseph, Manu Tuilagi and Ben Te’o, whilst Wasps have also been heavily mooted to sign former All Black Malakai Fekitoa.

Joseph has already been linked with a lucrative move to Bristol but no matter how impressive the offer, that is a move, if it were to happen, that is unlikely to progress until Bristol show they are more than likely going to avoid the drop to the Greene King IPA Championship this season.

Tuilagi and Te’o have enjoyed profitable deals at Leicester Tigers and Worcester Warriors respectively but have seen their tenures blighted by injury. It will be interesting to see if this affects their clubs’ attitudes towards retention and how their market value sits with the other Premiership clubs.

Continue reading below…

Watch: Damian Hopley discusses player welfare education in the wake of the new season structure that comes into place after the Rugby World Cup.

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Both Joseph and Tuilagi, presumably, retain England ambitions beyond the 2019 Rugby World Cup, so stays in the Premiership make sense for them, but Te’o, who turns 32 this season, could profit from a stint in the Top 14 before eventually hanging up his boots.

Should Joseph and Tuilagi opt to leave their clubs, that would also bring Bath and Leicester into the outside centre market.

Another intriguing name could be Ollie Devoto.

The Exeter Chief signed a three-year deal with he joined from Bath and that contract expires this season. He is built in the mould of the secondary playmakers that have come into vogue at the 13 position following the rises of Henry Slade and Alex Lozowski, but unfortunately injuries have marred his time at Exeter so far.

Two players who may not be ‘stars’ but who have proven they have what it takes at the highest club level, are Saracens’ Nick Tompkins and Newcastle’s Tom Penny.

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Tompkins has struggled to break into the regular Saracens XV and with Lozowski seemingly having taken up permanent station there this season, the former England U20 star could be eyeing up first team rugby elsewhere. As for Penny, he’s worked his way ahead of Scotland international Chris Harris at Kingston Park in recent weeks and has been dovetailing nicely with Johnny Williams in the north-east.

Both Tompkins and Penny are in contract years.

Experienced operators like Marcelo Bosch and Olivier Wynand are also in the final seasons of their respective deals and could be short-term solutions for clubs looking to fill out their squads and have them provide mentoring roles for younger players.

The other option for clubs looking to bolster their stocks at 13 or find a potential starter would be to target players currently on senior academy contracts and bring them in before their value skyrockets.

Gabriel Ibitoye is being looked at as a wing by Harlequins and all of his potential suitors, but 13 is a position he is well-acquainted with and could certainly perform at a high standard at in the Premiership.

Ollie Lawrence is already making waves at the senior level, although Worcester Warriors will be keen to lock him up on a long-term senior contract, Saracens’ Dom Morris is ready for more games and Harlequins’ Harry Barlow has plenty of talent, but faces a tough pecking order to climb in the club’s midfield.

In other news: Premiership CEO Mark McCafferty explains the how the new season structure will work.

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Eliza Galloway 1 hour ago
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JW 1 hour ago
James O'Connor, the Lions and the great club v country conundrum

Lol you need to shoot your editor for that headline, even I near skipped the article.


France simply need to go to a league format for the Brennus, that will shave two weekends of pointless knockout rugby from their season and raise the competitions standards and mystique no end.


The under age loophole is also a easy door to shut, just remove the lower age limit. WR simply never envisioned a day were teams would target people under the age of 17 or whatever it is now, but much like with Rassie and his use of subs bench, that day was obviously always going to come. I can’t remember how football does it, I think it’s the other way around with them, you can’t sign anyone younger than that but unions can’t stop 17 or 18 yo’s from leaving for a pro club if they want to. There is a transaction that takes place of a few hundred thousand for a normal average player. I’d prefer rugby to be stricter and just keep the union bodies signoff being required.


What really was their problem with Kite and co leaving though? Do we really need a game dominated by Internationals? I even think WR’s proposed calendar might be a bit too much, with at minimum 12 top tier games being played in the World Championship. I think 10 to 12, maybe any one player playing 10 of those 12 is the best way to think of it, for every international team is max, so that they can allow their domestic comps to shine if they want, and other nations like Japan and Fiji can, even some of the home nations maybe, and fill out their calendar with extra tours if they like them as a way to make money. As it is RA don’t have as good a pathway system, so they could simply buy back those players if they turn good. Are they worried they’ll be less likely to? We wait for baited breath for the new season to be laid out in front of us by WR.

It could impose sanctions on the Fédération Française de Rugby, but the body which runs the Top 14 and the ProD2, the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, is entirely independent.

It’s not independent at all. The LNR is a body under, and commissioned by, the FFR (and Government control) to mediate the clubs. FFR can simply install a new club competition if they don’t listen, then you’d see whether the players want to stay at any club who doesn’t tow the line and move to the new competition, as they obviously wouldn’t fall under the auspice of world rugby. They would be rebels, which is fine in and upon itself, but they would isolate themselves from the rest of the game and would need to be OK with that. I have no doubt whatsoever that clubs would have to and want to fall in line to remain part of the EPCR and French rugby. Probably even the last thing they would want is to compete with another French domestic competition that has all the advantages they don’t.


All those players would do good for a few seasons in France, especially the fringe ones, with thankfully zero risk of them being poached if they turn good. New Zealand had a turn at keeping all of it’s talent, and while it upticked the competitiveness of the Super Rugby teams into a total dominance of Australian and South African counterparts (who were suffering more heavily than most the other way at that stage), it didn’t have as positive an effect on the next step up as ensuring young talents development is not hindered does. Essentially NZR flooded the locate market with players but inevitably it didn’t think the local economy could sustain any more pro teams itself, so now we are seeing a normal amount of exodus for the availability of places again. Are Australia in exactly the same footing? I think so, finances where dicey for a while perhaps but I doubt they are putting money constraints on their contracting now. It’s purely about who leaves to open up opportunity.

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