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Petti set for French switch from Jaguares, Leicester's Lavanini also linked with Top 14 move

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Guido Petti is set to become the latest Argentine to flee the Super Rugby Jaguares and he could be joined in next season’s Top 14 by Tomas Lavanini who has been at Leicester since the Pumas were eliminated from the 2019 World Cup. 

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With New Zealand and Australian teams having formulated in-country Super Rugby replacement tournaments due to the coronavirus, and South Africa reportedly set to do likewise, the future for the Buenos Aires-based Jaguares is increasingly looking bleak. 

Coach Gonzalo Quesada has already taken up his old role at Stade Francais while Jaguares midfielder Jeronimo de la Fuente has revealed players at the franchise were told at the end of May by the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) that they are free to take up offers from overseas clubs to continue playing rugby.

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      That has left Petti, 25, being courted by various French clubs, with Bordeaux now touted by Midi Olympique to be in pole position to secure his signature. 

      Bordeaux president Laurent Marti said: “It is true that his profile interests us. We have only four second row players under contract for next season. We need five, but nothing is signed.”

      Meanwhile, Quesada’s recent return to Stade Francais has resulted in them being linked with securing Lavanini on the back of the current financial troubles at Leicester. The lock joined the Tigers last year after four seasons at the Jaguares, but the English club are set to report a loss of over £5million at the end of this month.  

      However, a possible complication for any Lavanini move to Stade is that when he left Racing in 2015 to return to Argentina he apparently agreed that the Jacky Lorenzetti-owned club would get the first refusal if the forward ever considered returning to the French league.  

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      Red-carded at the World Cup versus England, the 27-year-old featured 13 times for the Tigers before the English season was halted by the coronavirus pandemic.  

      Elsewhere in France, Australian second row Tom Murday has been released from the last year of his contract at Agen and will take up a role at an unnamed Japanese club in 2021. Long-serving Colomiers prop Damien Weber, who also had spells at Stade and Lyon, has retired at the age of 34 to focus on his butchery business. 

       

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      DarstedlyDan 38 minutes ago
      New Zealanders may not understand, but in France Test rugby is the 'B movie'

      Italy have a top 14 issue too, that’s true. I doubt SA are overly pleased by that, although it’s countered somewhat by the fact they would expect to thrash them anyway, so perhaps are not that bothered.


      The BIL teams are (aside from Ireland) A/B teams - still with many A team players. I would rather the England team touring Argentina be playing the ABs than this French one.


      France could have reduced the complaints and the grounds for such if they had still picked the best team from those eligible/available. But they haven’t even done that. This, plus the playing of silly b@ggers with team selection over the three tests is just a big middle finger to the ABs and the NZ rugby public.


      One of the key reasons this is an issue is the revenue sharing one. Home teams keep the ticket revenues. If the July tours are devalued to development larks then the crowds will not show up (why go watch teams featuring names you’ve never heard of?). This costs the SH unions. The NH unions on the other hand get the advantage of bums on seats from full strength SH teams touring in November. If the NH doesn’t want to play ball by touring full strength, then pay up and share gate receipts. That would be fair, and would reduce the grounds for complaint from the south. This has been suggested, but the NH unions want their cake and eat it too. And now, apparently, we are not even allowed to complain about it?


      Finally - no one is expecting France to do things the way NZ or SA do. We oddly don’t really mind that it probably makes them less successful at RWC than they would otherwise have been. But a bit of willingness to find a solution other than “lump it, we’re French” would go a looonnng way.

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