Castres No.8 Tulou pulls out of Beziers move, confirming new Top 14 club on social

Destructive Castres No.8 Alex Tulou will not sign for ProD2 Beziers, as widely reported upon in France.

The back row will in fact for sign for Lyon, also confounding rumours linking him with a move to Clermont Auvergne.

The 33-year-old will take up a one year contract with LOU, where he will join returning centre cum No.8 Matthieu Bastareaud.

The 6'3, 114kg forward has enjoyed five years at Castres, prior to which he spent four years with Montpellier and Bourgain before that.

"Blessed and honored to have signed with the Lyon LOU Rugby Club. It’s awesome to return to the region where i started my French Top 14 career 10 years ago with Bourgain," Tulou wrote on Instagram.

Although not entirely clear, it is quite possible his previously reported move to Beziers was contingent on the club being bought out by the UAE investors. Two weeks ago investors at the centre of a bid to takeover Beziers pulled out after French rugby’s accounting watch-dog rejected their approach, ending the ProD2 club’s dreams of expansion. The DNACG, the French game’s financial enforcement body, decided that the criteria for takeover hadn’t been met.

Once a New Zealand Sevens representative, Tulou has forged a career in France as a hard carrying, metre eating No.8 specialist.