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Two French giants eyeing Duhan van der Merwe - reports

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Toulon have joined Racing 92 in the race to sign Scotland and Worcester Warriors winger Duhan van der Merwe, according to reports in France.

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The Parisian outfit have already been linked with the 106kg winger to serve as injury cover for incoming rugby league star Regan Grace from St Helens, who ruptured his Achilles tendon last month, but Midi Olympique have reported that Toulon are also circling van der Merwe amid Worcester’s financial struggles.

The British & Irish Lion has already had a stint playing in France, representing Montpellier in the 2016/17 season before a move to Edinburgh kickstarted his career. After four years in the Scottish capital, in which he qualified for Scotland, he made the move to Sixways at the beginning of last season.

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The Midi Olympique report also says that flanker Kyle Hatherell is on the verge of signing for reigning Heineken Champions Cup winners La Rochelle after catching the eye of a number of clubs in England as well.

It was confirmed over the weekend that the Worcester players have been paid their wages following an IT issue at the bank, but there seems to be no end to the crisis they find themselves in, and as a consequence, Top 14 clubs are looking to benefit.

“This situation must be stressful for you all, we are sorry we are in this boat and we’ve done everything we can do avoid it, all we can do now is deal with what’s in front of us,” wrote Warriors co-owners Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring in an internal memo.

“Regarding the payroll situation, the bank have finally confirmed the issue has been resolved and we can process the rest of the player and staff salary payments, some having already gone through.

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“No doubt your focus will be on the immediate payroll situation, but I’d also like to say things are progressing well behind the scenes with one investor group in particular.”

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Flankly 2 hours 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?

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