Wallabies openside flanker Liam Gill is heading overseas to play in France at the end of the Super Rugby season in a blow for the ailing Queensland Reds and Australian rugby.
The highly-rated 23-year-old has been linked with a move Top 14 side Toulon, having been shut out of Australia’s back row for the last two years by David Pocock, Michael Hooper and latterly Sean McMahon.
A shining light for the Reds last year in an otherwise gloomy season, Gill would join Wallabies Quade Cooper, Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell and James O’Connor at the French side owned by comic book tycoon Mourad Boudjellal.
With Gill, who was capped 15 times for the Wallabies from 2012-13, missing out on a national contract and the salary top-up afforded to Wallabies players, the Reds admitted they were unable to compete at the negotiating table.
“He has international aspirations but plays in a position in which Australia have significant depth and he felt he would have limited Wallaby opportunities,” general manager Daniel Herbert said in a statement.
“Whilst we are disappointed to see him go, there are limitations to what we are currently able to do if players garner overseas interest and aren’t in the top band of Wallabies.”
Overseas-based players with fewer than 60 test caps are not allowed to play test rugby under Australian Rugby Union (ARU) rules aimed at retaining local talent.
Gill’s move would therefore make him ineligible to play for the Wallabies from 2017, at a time when Pocock might also be unavailable for selection.
Pocock, whose contract with Canberra-based Super Rugby side ACT Brumbies expires at the end of the season, has expressed an interest in taking a year-long sabbatical to study.
However, Gill’s departure has also fuelled media speculation that Pocock could head north to shore up the Reds pack along with Wallabies captain Stephen Moore, who has already announced he is Brisbane-bound in 2017.
The Brumbies, who were furious at losing hooker Moore, said on Wednesday that contract negotiations with Pocock were far from over.
“It creates all sorts of problems if Poey takes a break,” Brumbies chief executive Michael Jones told News Ltd media of the proposed sabbatical. “My preferred solution, and our offer to him, doesn’t allow a break.”
Meanwhile Toulon’s US international forward Samu Manoa is to undergo an operation on his injured left knee and will be out for around three months, coach Bernard Laporte said Wednesday. The news is a blow for the Top 14 giants, coming just a day after Irish lock Paul O’Connell announced his retirement from all rugby through injury without ever having donned a Toulon shirt.
Manoa, who arrived in Toulon from Northampton in the summer, injured his knee in the 29-21 friendly defeat by the Sharks on Friday, having previously sustained an injury in December. The 30-year-old will miss several league games as well as the quarter-finals of the European Champions’ Cup and possibly the semi-finals.
Toulon, the three-time defending European champions, currently only have Jocelino Suta, Romain Taofifenua, Thibault Lassalle and Konstantin Mikautadze in the lock department, the latter two having also picked up injuries against the Sharks. For that reason, Toulon will look at taking on a medical joker to plug the gap left by Manoa, Laporte said.

Ex-France captain Pape extends Stade contract

Former France captain Pascal Pape will see out the rest of his career at Stade Francais after signing a one-year extension through to 2017, the reigning Top 14 champions announced yesterday.
“I’m very happy. I think I can do another season as a player and that pleases me because I will definitely finish my playing career at this club which is what I wanted,” explained Pape on the Paris-based club’s website.
The 35-year-old lock joined Stade from Castres in 2007 and played 65 times for France before announcing his international retirement following last year’s World Cup.
Meanwhile, fellow second-rower Paul Gabrillagues, 22, has penned a three-year deal tying him down until 2019 with Stade having graduated from the club’s youth academy.

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