Leigh Halfpenny discusses move back to Wales

Leigh Halfpenny is ready to open talks over a return to Wales even if it means taking an annual pay cut of £200,000.
Preliminary negotiations are understood to have taken place with the Blues and Scarlets preparing to clear the decks for the Welsh Lion whose £600,000-a-year contract with Toulon expires at the end of the season.
Blues chairman Peter Thomas described Halfpenny’s home-coming as “a very possible reality”.
A dual contract, split 60-40 between the WRU and the Blues or the Scarlets, would, at best, be worth two-thirds of his deal at Toulon.
Halfpenny’s two-year agreement with Toulon runs out at the end of next June, raising a potential clash over his release for Wales’ three-Test series in New Zealand at the same time as the Top14 play-offs.
“Leigh’s career will be controlled and looked after much better here by the Blues and the WRU,” Thomas told The Rugby Paper.
“The first choice that he has to make is this, ‘do I take up the option of a third year at Toulon? Or do I come home’.
“I’d rather hope he decides to come home and in that event he will come back to his home at the Cardiff Blues.  It’s a very possible reality.
‘’His heart is in the Blues and I know how much he likes Cardiff as a city. We’d welcome him back with open arms. We have expressed our very positive interest. A national dual contract with the Blues and the WRU is going to lengthen his career.”
The Blues’ biggest challenge will be to convince Halfpenny to join a club who have failed to qualify for the Champions’ Cup for each of the last two seasons.
Defeat by the Ospreys yesterday was the Blues’ seventh on the bounce in the Pro 12. The Scarlets, eager to convince Halfpenny he has a better future with them, have won six out of seven with Zebre at home today.
Cardiff say Halfpenny’s recapture is part of an ambitious plan under new head coach Danny Wilson to end their struggle. “The Blues have been in the doldrums for too long,” Thomas said.    “Our plans for next season will certainly take us up the table. We have signed four high quality players although we are not saying who they are at this stage.
“Our intention is to increase that number to six for the start of next season.    We very much hope Leigh will be one of those. He is our No. 1 target.”
PETER JACKSON