Leigh Halfpenny told: Play for Toulon or face axe
The triple European champions say their Lions full-back will be told to “look for another club” if he chooses to go on tour with Wales to New Zealand next June at the expense of his club’s bid to regain their French Top14 title.
Mourad Boudjellal, Toulon’s volatile owner, has made his position clear: “Those players who won’t be here for the end of the season, we would ask them to look for another club.
“For me, vis-à-vis the labour laws, it would be a serious mistake. I hope they won’t ask to be paid if that is the case. I hope that the international players choose to stay in France.”
The issue affects six of Toulon’s vast international array – two South Africans (Bryan Habana, Duane Vermuelen) two Australians (Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell), one Argentinian (Juan Martin Fernandez-Lobbe) and Halfpenny.
Ireland‘s Paul O’Connell will have retired from Test rugby by the time he joins Toulon after the World Cup and England‘s English-only policy excludes the Armitage brothers, Steffon and Delon.
France go to Argentina in June but will not select any players from clubs involved in the Top 14 play-offs.
Boudjellal has renewed his fight for what he sees as justice, writing to World Rugby asking the governing body to pay compensation for losing players to international competition during the season.
“It seems obvious to me that the clubs who pay the wages should have their stars for the most important dates of the season,” he told Midi-Olympique. “I hope the Unions are understanding but, generally, we deal with people of real egotism.”
Wales will claim Halfpenny under Regulation 9 which requires clubs to release players during the agreed international windows. As revealed in The Rugby Paper last month, that would mean Halfpenny missing the last two rounds of the Top 14 seasons and the knock-out finale.
The issue of full release will almost certainly cause ructions among England’s Aviva Premiership clubs in respect of Jamie Roberts. Harlequins, whom he joined from Racing Metro in May, have promised the WRU that their centre will be released whenever Wales needs him.
That will put them at odds with their own organisation, Premier Rugby Ltd., and their blanket refusal to release players from club duty for out-of-window international matches.
When Northampton released George North for just such a fixture two years ago, PRL fined them £60,000 — £20,000 for each year of the player’s three-year contract. Harlequins would appear to have exposed themselves to a similar penalty over Roberts.
“Our policy hasn’t changed,” a PRL spokesman said. “We relaxed it for the World Cup as a gesture to every team but nothing has changed for the coming season. We can only deal with any future issues if and when they arise.”
Bath, whose owner Bruce Craig is a leading figure in PRL, would have been liable for sanction had they granted Taulupe Faletau, right, full release over his proposed signing from the Dragons.
Wales coach Warren Gatland‘s blocking of Faletau’s move over that issue will cost the Dragons a hefty six-figure transfer fee. Instead of leaving once his World Cup commitments are over, Faletau can walk away at the end of the season as a free agent.
His advisers must now decide whether to challenge the blockage as a restraint of trade or negotiate their man’s delayed arrival at Bath until next summer on the basis that he will take his chance with Wales thereafter.
n Ireland are being asked to play the All Blacks next year, not in Dublin or Auckland but Chicago. The match is being tentatively planned for November 2016 at Soldier Field, the 62,000-seater stadium where the All Blacks played America last year.
‘’Yes, we are talking to New Zealand about coming back to the USA,” the Eagles’ director of rugby Nigel Melville told TRP yesterday. “We’re also talking to other teams”.
PETER JACKSON
