Julian Savea takes pay cut to remain with Toulon

The lure of a return to the All Blacks holds little appeal to Julian Savea after the out of favour Toulon wing took a pay cut to remain with the Top 14 side.

Savea arrived on the Cote d’Azur last summer on a £870,000-per-season contract, a matter which was also factored by Reiko Ioane’s emergence as a world class All Black wing.

And despite a record of 46 tries in 54 appearances for New Zealand, Savea’s first season wasn’t without its controversy.

In February, Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal let fire at the 28-year-old who threatened the wing with facing a ‘very long’ final year of his contract in 2019-20, with reports suggesting the multi-millionaire was not happy with the return on his investment in the Super Rugby winner.

But last month Boudjellal admitted he ‘may have been too harsh’ in his lambasting of Savea.Yet that has not stopped Toulon from spending big to add fierce competition for Savea, with Nehe Milner-Skudder and Bryce Heem moving to Stade Felix Mayol this summer. Want to bag yourself a casino bonus? See page here for the latest offers.

Restructuring the wage bill in order to accomodate the arrival of the duo, French regional newspaper Var-martin are reporting Savea has taken a pay cut to see out the final year of his contract and play for Toulon in the 2019-20 season.

“Looking forward to this season with @RCTofficiel [Toulon]. One more week of holiday break and then back into the grind,” the wing wrote on Twitter.