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Struggling Biarritz ready to swoop for out-of-favour Munster pair
By Liam Heagney
Fallen French giants Biarritz are set to raid Johann van Graan’s Munster fringe, lining up the summer signing of two players surplus to requirement at the Irish province.
Back row Dave O’Callaghan and scrum-half James Hart have failed to get much of a look-in during the South African coach’s first full season in Ireland.
O’Callaghan has managed just a pair of PRO14 starts this term with Hart even faring worse, featuring just twice off the bench in a season where he slipped further down the pecking order when Munster snapped up former All Black Alby Mathewson on a short-term deal as cover for Conor Murray.
That inactivity at a club that has qualified for an end-of-March Champions Cup quarter-final at Edinburgh has made them prime targets for a change of scenery and reports in France claim Biarritz are willing to provide it.
French rugby would be unfamiliar territory to 29-year-old O’Callaghan, but Hart, 27, earned his stripes at Grenoble and Racing 92 before moving to Munster in 2017.
There are currently eight players from Ireland playing in this season’s Pro D2. They include Jamie Hagan (Beziers), Stuart Olding (Brive) and Dan Tuohy (Vannes), a trio of former internationals who moved to France to keep their professional careers alive.
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Time have changed drastically for Biarritz since they were battling head-to-head with Munster for European honours. The clubs clashed in the 2006 European Cup final and the 2010 semi-final, but Biarritz have slipped out of the picture since then, losing their their Top 14 status when relegated in 2014 and only an LNR reprieve saved them from being regelated into Federale 1 following financial problems.
That threat of embarrassing demotion was avoided and Biarritz are now mid-table in Pro D2 with hopes of making it through to the end-of-season promotion play-offs.
Along with O’Callaghan and Hart, they are said to have also lined up Leroy Houston, the former Australian international who is now at Bordeaux, for a move down the French Atlantic coast.
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Latest Comments
Lakai? Hell no, Kirifi is the like for like. I could never imagine Lakai throwing a dummy like Ardie, his had’s and offload are probably his best asset. Still a good option to replace Ardies function within the group. Happy for that to phase in slowly over the next two years.
Kirifi is someone demanding attention as Ardie’s/the teams go to back up option though. Like with you’re Kaino ref though, happy for that to reverse back again if Lakai simply starts outperforming him again. The Kaino role has really been filled by Cane (perhaps because they didn’t find a replacement) and the 6’s that have been used are more like a Read/Jones/Flavell/Fifita.
I really do like the idea of that rock being a little bigger and a little tougher than Cane though. Miracle looks like that guy, and there are few possible young kiwis coming through too. Barrett over Vaa’i for me, he just has a little of the mongrol and flair you also want.
Go to commentsI think you have gone in the wrong direction here Nick. I think you need to delve down into the rules etc around Moana Pacifica’s selection policies and then you need to understand that a lot of KIWI BORN rugby players have PI heritage. It appears ok for the 4 home nations to pillage NZ born players constantly without retribution but you want to question whether NZ BORN players should be eligible for NZ? Seems a real agenda in there.
Go back and look at the actual Aims and agenda for MP becoming a entity and you see lots of things enshrined in policy that you arnt mentioning here. EG there is an allowance for a percentage of MP to be NZ eligible. This was done so MP could actually become competitive. Lets be real. If it wasnt this way then MP would not be competitive.
There also seems to be some sort of claim ( mainly from the NH ) that NZ is “cashing in” on MP, which , quite frankly is a major error. Are you aware of how much MP costs NZR Financially?
39 NZ born rugby players played at the last world cup for Samoa or Tonga. PLUS plenty for Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.
Taumoefolau is a BORN AND BRED NZer. However I very strongly doubt he will be an AB, but who do you believe he should be allowed to play for? Levi Aumua is ALSO a born and bred Kiwi.
Aumua was eligible to represent Samoa and Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup in July that year but ended up playing for neither. He IS eligible for his nation of Birth too Nick
He is a Kiwi. Are you saying an NZ born, raised Kiwi cant play for NZ now?
Sorry Nick Kiwi born and bred actually qualify for NZ.
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