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Fissler Confidential: George Ford's swansong, England to lose another coach?
By Neil Fissler
England fly-half George Ford, who has been earmarked to finish his career in rugby league with Oldham, the club his father Mike co-owns, has opened talks on what could be his final union contract.
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Ford will celebrate his 32nd birthday next March and is now in the final year of his contract with Sale Sharks, but there are no problems anticipated with him putting pen to paper on a new deal.
The former World Rugby junior player of the year, who has won 96 England caps, has at least another three years in him before he is likely to look seriously at his cross-code switch.
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The South African rumour mill is already in overdrive, and the whispers are that Lions playmaker Sanele Nohamba could be on the move when his contract runs out next summer.
The Lions star player, who spent three years at the Sharks before moving to Johannesburg in May 2022 on a three-year deal, has Morne van den Berg, who won his first two Springboks caps this summer, as competition at scrum-half.
That is his preferred position and, as a result, the 25-year-old could be on the move with the clever money on him popping up at the Stormers where boss John Dobson is known to be a big fan and keen on a deal.
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Scotland lock Jamie Hodgson might only just have signed a new two-year deal, but that isn’t stopping Gallagher Premiership clubs from casting admiring glances in the direction of Edinburgh.
The Livingstone-born 26-year-old, who was educated at Stewart’s Melville College, won the last of his five Scotland caps against Italy in March 2022. He graduated with an economics degree from the University of Edinburgh this summer.
Even though he missed a large part of last season through injury, making just eight appearances, he has attracted interest from a few Premiership clubs who would love to lure him south after his wedding next summer.
Melvyn Jaminet could be facing the end of his international career after FFR president Florian Grill slammed the door shut on a possible return to Fabien Galthie’s squad once he has served his suspension.
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The full-back swerved the sack from Toulon for a vile racist social media post that saw him sent home from Argentina in disgrace. He is serving a 34-week ban but there appears to be no chance of him winning a 22nd French cap.
“There is an incompatibility between the words of this guy and the fact he was wearing the shirt of the French national team,” a defiant Grill told French radio this week.
Former Saracens and England captain Owen Farrell could be battling to be fit for next weekend’s opening game of the Top 14 season against Castres after being forced to postpone his French bow with Racing 92.
The 32-year-old, who last played in Saracens’ Premiership semi-final defeat to Northampton at the end of May, has been suffering from neck pain and missed the pre-season win over Lyon in Bourg-en-Bresse on Friday night.
Stuart Lancaster started his son Dan, who played for Ealing Trailfinders in the Championship last season, in the playmaker role. If Farrell is ruled out of the trip to Castres, Lancaster junior could be handed the Racing reins at the Stade Pierre-Fabre.
Kurt-Lee Arendse will be handsomely remunerated for his sabbatical in Japan next year after agreeing to join the Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars for the next Japan League One campaign.
The Rugby World Cup-winning winger, who has scored 17 tries in 21 Test appearances for the Springboks, is under contract at the Bulls until June 2026 and is set to return to Pretoria in time for the business end of the 2024/25 URC campaign.
Sources in South Africa have estimated that he could be in line for a mega payday for his short stint, with estimates that it could pocket him R14million (£726,00) or more. Nice work if you can get it.
England coach Steve Borthwick, who has lost lieutenants Felix Jones and Aled Walters in recent weeks, must be praying that a third, Kevin Sinfield, doesn’t desert him later on this year.
The assistant is currently working out his 12-month notice period and is due to leave his job after England’s autumn international campaign, but he has been having talks about staying on, which are now likely to be stepped up.
Meanwhile, the suggestion last weekend was that the RFU could play hardball with Jones and force him to serve his full 12-month notice, but an experienced international coach told us this week that he would expect a deal to be struck.
Ulster don’t kick off their URC campaign for another three weeks with a September 21 home game against Glasgow Warriors, but new head coach Richie Murphy is already on the lookout to strengthen his squad.
The Irish club sent out a circular last week saying that they are in the market for another tighthead. Having added Werner Kok, Aidan Morgan and Ireland sevens international Zac Ward to their squad over the summer, they hope to have new prop signing in place as quickly as possible.
Championship title hopefuls Ealing have announced the signing of Harlequins second row Matas Jurevicius, as predicted by Fissler Confidential last Sunday. The 24-year-old, who was born in Lithuania, spent four years with Quins after being spotted playing for London Scottish but was never able to hold down a regular first-team place.
Meanwhile, Leicester last week unveiled Ben Volavola, whom we said in July was joining the club. His signing once again illustrated how RugbyPass sits alone on the top table when it comes to rugby transfer news.
made me panic for a second!
given that Sinfield was already planning to leave, it wouldn't be too much of a disaster if he does.
if he and Jones both leave then we're only down 1 defence coach. If he stays then we've potentially wasted 8 months on learning a new defensive system, but our coaching stocks will actually be looking pretty healthy. We'll just need a new head of S&C, and possibly someone to take on Sinfield's mentoring role (I've previously suggested Skivington or Dowson for this), but the former would probably be a relatively easy appointment and the latter would be non-urgent.
Skivington? God help us!!
Nice touch, having the reader try and figure out which player might be leaving the Lions. Using clues sprinkled about the article.