Hogg has eyes set on Top 14 surprise

JAMES HARRINGTON

FRENCH COLUMN

Stuart Hogg’s reported surprise reverse-ferret back into the professional game after his retirement last year – and repeated suggestions that he could be heading to Montpellier made numerous headlines over the past week.

Hogg has been ‘in advanced talks’ to join the currently Top 14 side on a short-term medical joker contract, the Telegraph reported after Midi Olympique had broken news that a move was on the cards, with France international Anthony Bouthier on the sidelines until 2025.

If it goes ahead, the move would lead to further player upheaval at the troubled club, notwithstanding any player exodus if they end up getting relegated to the ProD2.

It’s no secret that the French club – which has a date with a promotion-relegation play-off next Sunday – has been on the hunt for cover at full-back next season, after Bouthier suffered serious knee ligament damage at the end of April, despite having George Bridge and the soon-to-arrive Josh Moorby, who can both cover the position, on the books.

Hogg, 31, has apparently been looking to return to action for some time, and had sounded out clubs in the English Premiership and in Japan.

At the end of their last home match of the season – the 41-26 victory over Pau last Saturday – Montpellier said farewell to no fewer than nine players: Louis Carbonel, who has been released from the final year of his contract to join Stade Francais; fellow flyhalf Louis Foursans-Bourdette, who is making the same journey to Paris; the retiring Geoffrey Doumayrou; academy-contract nine Aubin Eymeri; hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa, who is heading back to Australia; Harlequins-bound prop Titi Lamositele, and Gregory Fichten, who will hold up the scrum at Narbonne next season; backrow Clément Doumenc, who moves up the road to Beziers; and winger Ben Lam, who has been released from his contract after a difficult couple of seasons at the club.

Those are the nine departures we know about – that the club confirmed with the post-match goodbye at the GGL eight days ago. If Hogg’s Montpellier switch goes ahead, expect a couple more reasonably big-name player moves away from the 2022 Top 14 champions as a result.

The problem is French rules on non-JIFF players – which, you’ll recall, is a requirement to have a majority of players coming to the professional game through the French rugby system.

They’re often mentioned in reference to matchday squads, which must – according to the rules – average 16 or more JIFF players per matchday 23 across the season. But there’s a wider component, too.

Established Top 14 clubs are permitted a maximum of 13 non-JIFF players in their senior squads. According to the website AllRugby, which raised the point following the Hogg announcement, Montpellier are already busting that figure.

The website – which monitors and collates publicly available information – lists a total 22 non-JIFF players on Montpellier’s books for 2024/25. It was 23, until incoming hooker Elia Elia was found to have a health problem that might mean he could no longer play in France, prompting the club back into the market for an experienced two.

“Montpellier look likely to make an offer to play again to the former Scottish player”

Of that total 22 non-JIFF players, seven are academy squad members, leaving 15 senior non-JIFF players including Hogg, whose presence counts towards the club’s total, even though he would be on a short-term medical joker deal.

That obliges the club to offload two players who have a non-JIFF profile. It doesn’t take a mathematician to work that out, or the fact that – even without Hogg – one player still has to go before the start of next season. Who that player is – or those players are – remains to be confirmed.

The return of Mohamed Haouas, after one season at Biarritz following his conviction for domestic violence, could leave room, for example, for a tighthead prop to be released from their contract – perhaps Harry Williams and/or Karl Tu’inukuafe, neither of whom have enjoyed the best of professional times on the Mediterranean coast.

But the more pressing concern for the 2022 Top 14 champions is next Sunday’s survival play-off.

To the ProD2 now and the ongoing saga of Biarritz, whose future should be decided in the coming days. The new owners – who paid a nominal €1 for the club in April – were summoned before French professional rugby’s financial watchdog on Wednesday, to prove that millions of euros they said would be available actually were. They were accompanied to the decisive meeting by town mayor, Maider Arosteguy, who has more than a passing interest in the club’s viability.

Hours after that meeting ended, the club announced on social media platforms that, “the regulatory authority is expected to confirm that the club will remain in Pro D2 on Monday”.

It’s entirely possible that the owners’ confidence is well placed, but the financial authority wanted clarification on key aspects of the purchase agreement.

It seems the deal involves the transfer of ownership of Biarritz’s long lease on Parc des Sports Aguilera, while City Hall is giving over the ownership of Villa Rose, a valuable property right next to the stadium, to a trust – and French financial authorities aren’t exactly fans of trusts – created especially for the deal to go through.

The watchdog demanded changes to the agreement at the meeting, which were initialled late in the day, prompting delays to their approval, according to regional newspaper Sud Ouest.

“We’re confident, but we now need a firm commitment on Biarritz Olympique’s account,” one official told the newspaper.

Vannes are the first side from Brittany – and the first side from northwest France – to win promotion to the Top 14, after they beat Grenoble 16-9 in a tense final to lift the ProD2 title yesterday, eight seasons after they were first promoted to the second tier of French rugby.

The result means Sam Davies’s Grenoble now face a promotion-relegation play-off against Montpellier at Stade des Alpes next Sunday.