Munster line up Tom Farrell to replace Antoine Frisch
Munster are understood to have lined up Connacht’s long-serving former Ireland under-20 international outside centre Tom Farrell to replace Toulon-bound Antoine Frisch.
Frisch is in advanced discussions with Toulon over a four-year deal, and Munster have been trying to land a replacement before allowing the Irish-qualified Frenchman to leave for the Cote d’Azur.
They had been chasing Leicester Tigers England international Dan Kelly, who becomes Irish-qualified in July, but a deal was problematic because he is under contract to the Tigers next season.
They had also looked at Piers O’Conor, but Bristol Bears announced that the former Ealing Trailfinders centre, who has made 138 appearances for Pat Lam’s side, would be moving to Galway.
Dublin-born Farrell, 31, started his career with Lansdowne, Leinster A, London Irish and Bedford Blues before moving to the injury-hit reigning Pro12 Champions in January 2017.
He has made over 100 appearances for Connacht but is under pressure from younger players in David Hawkshaw and Cathal Forde, who are pushing him down the pecking order.
There were even rumours that Farrell, who was touted to win a full Ireland cap in 2019 when he was called up for the opening rounds of Six Nations, could even retire after not being offered a contract by Connacht.
It has been suggested that Munster have put a two-year contract on the table to tempt Farrell into continuing his career, with discussions now believed to be at an advanced stage.
Farrell has made 12 appearances for Connacht this season, eight in the United Rugby Championship, scoring two tries against Ulster in November and Zebra on April 20th.
He also came off the bench in their European Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat in Benetton last month after making two appearances in the Champions Cup earlier this season.
Munster are set to host Farrell's Connacht this weekend in the URC in Thomond Park.
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Looking forward to Canterbury's game. Great line up. Isaac Hutchinson at 15 has had a stunning first season for Canterbury. Another of other promising players introduced this year. 100 game Mitchell Drummond at halfback in great form last week.
Go to commentsIn order to have a fairer comparison you need to include the European Champions Cup game minutes played. Without them the SRP numbers are relatively overstated. I probably would also include Challenge Cup knock out stages minutes as well. For a number of clubs in the North these are the key games, not just the league, and the high profile players play in most of them if fit.
My other caveat on the piece, which was very interesting, is a feeling that the underlying assumption is that the international game has to be presented with "fresh" players and thus the next tier down has to accommodate to this. I would challenge this. The growth markets are club/provincial competitions and Test rugby needs to capped at a maximum of 10 or 11 games per team per season/year. Otherwise you don't have enough time to deliver a strong enough narrative in markets where rugby has many competitors and there is nowhere for franchise teams from emerging markets ( Spain , Georgia, Fiji, Chile etc.) to develop experience and depth - eventually being able to compete properly at RWC etc.
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