Wales star Dan Lydiate and Ospreys fly-half Dan Biggar have both been linked with moves to France according to reports in Wales.
Lydiate, who was named Player of the Championship after the Six Nations this year, is currently sidelined due to an ankle injury but is a target for Racing Métro according to WalesOnline.
Racing owner Jacky Lorenzetti has reportedly offered Lydiate £50,000 to sign a pre-contract agreement with the club.
The Parisian side have also been linked with Cardiff Blues centre Jamie Roberts, who announced last week that he would be leaving Wales at the end of this season to join a club in the Top 14.
Biggar is the target of several clubs in the Top 14 after his impressive form early on this season for the Ospreys. The fly-half is believed to have rejected an offer from Racing last season but may find it harder to say no a second time round.
Biggar was not included in the squad for the tour of Australia back in June, but may get a rare chance to impress for Wales against Samoa on Friday.
Comments
unebrindille says...
The French regulation does not mention nationality at all (cotonou agreement) but obligation of training in France, which is quite different.
Posted 15:33 14th November 2012
5Lock4ward says...
@Willy, Do you then mean to suggest that the FFR will not be able to legally back up the rule it means to impose in 2014? I agree with your thoughts about the national team being bigger than the club and would take it a step further in suggesting the IRB get rid of the residency rule and limit eligibility to birth nation of player or player's mother and father. That said I look forward to watching this French club player limit rule unfold when the time comes.
Posted 15:08 14th November 2012
Willy says...
Regarding Fench club quotas of non-french players, under EU law they cannot discriminate against any EU citizen due to the freedom of goods and services within the EU. Therefore if a french club was to sign 15 welsh players then so be it. The FFR rules regarding numbers of foregin players is not applicable to EU citiznes.
I personally do not agree with this as it means we're going more and more down the soccer route where the club game is bigger than the international game.
There is no easy solution though because you can't legally stop a player playing in another country if he/she so wishes.
Posted 09:46 14th November 2012
unebrindille says...
The French clubs are limited to 50% of "JIFF" in the squad. This means they must have 50% of the professionals players of the club coming from French training with criteria such as 5 years of French training before 21 or at least 3 seasons in a "centre de formation" (academy) with a convention with the state sport department.
The quota will be up to 60% next year.
Posted 21:04 13th November 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
Wales train in Poland so they just need to switch to France. As long as the players negotiate training terms these are good clubs to play with.
Posted 17:17 13th November 2012
melkdave says...
@5lockforward
Your not wrong ,french clubs are going to be limited in how many overseas players they can have.I expect the recent scramble is so they can achive a bit of glory Or so they can retain their T14 place ,before the limits kick in.I think in 2014 ,but could be wrong on that??They see how powerfull Toulon are ect,and dont want to be left behind ,.so get overseas players to deny others and so not risk their T14 place.Then theirs still talk of the league becoming the T16 aswell in a few years..Thats my opinion anyway.
Posted 14:25 13th November 2012
5Lock4ward says...
Am I wrong or was it not reported a couple of years ago that within a couple of years French clubs were going to be limited on the number of non-French eligible players per squad?
Posted 12:47 13th November 2012