Racing 92 confirm Le Garrec is leaving
JAMES HARRINGTON
FRENCH COLUMN
YES, it's still August – I've checked, and not just because the temperature here in south-west France has dipped nearly 15C in a few days. And, yes, Top 14 clubs are still busily prepping for their 2024/25 campaigns. Heck, the first round of the SuperSevens Series, a three-week post-Olympics pre-season appetiser, kicked off in Mont-de-Marsan yesterday – the domestic sevens circus heads to La Rochelle next weekend, then Pau the weekend after that.
The Top 14 season actually starts on September 7.
And yet, here we are talking about recruitment for the 2025/26 season. Really.
Racing 92 confirmed in the week that French international scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec will leave for La Rochelle at the end of the season that hasn't yet started. Soon after, Ronan O'Gara's side confirmed the news, adding that the 22-year-old had signed on the dotted line of a four-year deal at Stade Marcel Deflandre.
The news itself wasn't entirely surprising, for all that club owner Jacky Lorenzetti had said in June that keeping hold of Le Garrec – who missed the back end of last season and France's July tour of Argentina and Uruguay with a shoulder injury – was ‘a priority'.
But the fact that the player had not already signed a contract extension gave a pretty strong hint that Lorenzetti's optimism was doomed. What are the chances that an extension offer wasn't on his agents' desk before the start of last season. It's safe to assume the odds of that were less than zero.
After the news broke, president Laurent Travers was quick to play down the fallout. “It's done,” he said. “It hasn't become a soap opera.
“International scrum-half is on his way to La Rochelle – but not until next season”
“Nolann still has one season left on his contract and I am convinced he will be keen to finish in the best possible way with us … You don't build a team on a single player. What I can guarantee you is that Racing's ambitions are and will be very high, this season and the following ones.”
There had been whispers for some time that the player, who'll be an early name on Fabien Galthie's selection lists over the coming months if he stays fit, was looking for a challenge away from Racing, the club he had joined as a teenager in 2017 from Vannes.
La Rochelle – looking for a replacement for 34-year-old Tawera Kerr-Barlow, whose contract is up at the end of the coming season – were always among the favourites for his signature.
The incredibly early timing of Racing 92's statement, however, was. It was almost as if Racing – amid reports that South Africa captain Siya Kolisi has been negotiating a return to South Africa – are looking to clear the decks of bad news as early as possible.
It's certainly been a quick turn-around. Under LNR regulations, La Rochelle were not allowed to make a formal approach for Le Garrec before July 1, when he officially entered the final year of his contract. That doesn't mean, however, they were banned from indicating their interest to his agents earlier than that. Which they evidently did, given that the whole process was done and dusted in six weeks or so.
The Racing squad has been a happy recruitment ground for O'Gara – who was defence coach at the club when they won the Top 14 title in 2016 – and his scouts.
Since O'Gara joined the Atlantic coast club in 2019, Racing have signed Brice Dulin, Georges-Henri Colombe, Yoan Tanga, Teddy Thomas, Teddy Iribaren. Forwards coach Donnacha Ryan, too, joined La Rochelle fresh from retirement as a Racing player. And now he has Le Garrec, too, who promises to be the best signing of them all.
It's just the start of what will, obviously, be another hectic recruitment season in the Top 14. Bayonne and Bordeaux are both looking closely at Montpellier scrum-half Leo Coly. Those two clubs are already reportedly in a battle for the former's prop Tevita Tatafu. Castres have eyes on Vannes' flyhalf Maxime Lafage.
