Veteran Springbok full-back Willie Le Roux is waiting to see if he can attract any lucrative offers before deciding if he will take up a contract offer from Premiership big spenders Bath next season.
The former Wasps ace, 35, has announced that he will leave the Blue Bulls next summer despite having a year left on his contract. He was recently spotted in the Roman Spa City.
Le Roux needs two more test caps to complete his century and is prepared to keep Bath waiting while he waits for Japanese clubs who can offer better money to make up their minds.
Sale Sharks have agreed on a deal that will see Lions franchise captain Marius Louw move to Manchester when his deal with the Johannesburg outfit runs out at the end of the season.
Inside centre Louw, 29, has spent the last three seasons with the Lions, making 48 appearances and scoring 14 tries, starting his career with the University of KwaZulu-Natal before a six with the Sharks.
He has made six appearances this season but has only started two games and ends a search by the Sale boss Alex Sanderson, who spoke to several players before settling on a move for Louw.
Bristol Bears are poised to announce that they are keeping two more members of Pat Lam’s Premiership title-chasing squad at Ashton Gate next season, with AJ MacGinty and James Williams penning new deals.
Ireland-born American fly-half MacGinty, 34, has scored 311 points for the Bears in 44 appearances since making his way to the West Country from Premiership rivals Sale Sharks three years ago and had been tipped to be heading to the MLR.
Much-travelled inside-centre Williams, 27, was the Championship’s leading points scorer when he signed for The Bears in 2022 and has made 43 appearances for the club.
Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter has opened talks with England star Henry Slade to keep him at Sandy Park beyond the end of the season when his current contract runs out.
Plymouth-born Slade, 31, who has won 69 England caps, was one of the players awarded an enhanced contract by the RFU before the autumn internationals made his Chiefs debut 12 years ago.
The inside and outside centre, who also plays at fly-half and full-back, was linked to Top 14 outfit Stade Francais last season before signing his last contract but is understood not to have spoken to any clubs this time around.
Dave Cherry, who has been told that he is surplus to requirements with Edinburgh, could be on the move across the border to the Premiership to join Leicester Tigers next season.
Veteran hooker Cherry, 33, spent three seasons at London Scottish and then another at Stade Nicois before linking up with his hometown club in 2018 and has made 97 appearances for them.
Cherry, who won the last of his 11 Scotland caps against South Africa during the last World Cup before falling down stairs in the team hotel and flying home, has spoken to Leicester about a move when his two-year deal ends.
Former Worcester Warriors boss Rory Duncan is in advanced talks over a move to return to his former club, the Cheetahs, in an off-the-field role early in the New Year.
Duncan, 47, who is still based in the Worcester area, is completing an MBA at Warwick University and joined the Cheetahs as a player in 2006 before moving to Yamaha Jubilo in Japan two years later.
He then spent four years coaching the Bloemfontein-based outfit before moving to Worcester in 2018 and has been working as an assistant coach at NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes in Japan.
American Olympic Bronze medalist Ilona Maher might not have been the only big-name arrival at Bristol Bears this week had things gone to plan.
Sources in Ireland have told Fissler Confidential that the Bears inquired about Jordie Barrett before he signed a six-month deal with runaway United Rugby Championship leaders Leinster.
Barrett, who is under contract to the NZFU until 2028, has been linked with a move to the Premiership next season, but the Hurricanes and NZ deal was announced the day before the Leinster’s move was confirmed in April.
Sale Sharks boss Alex Sanderson has told former England international lock Jonny Hill that if he wants to stay in the North-West next season, he needs to prove his worth after serving a ten-week ban for an altercation with a fan at Bath.
“Jonny is playing for a contract, and he wants to stay here. I told him to get back playing well, and then he was in a position of strength. He is going to be good enough, and I don’t want to lowball him,” he said last week.
A serious patella injury scuppered Hill’s chances of a move to Lyon last summer, but we understand that his CV is again doing the rounds of French clubs ahead of a potential move at the end of this campaign.
Stormers blindside Hendre Stassen is off to join French side Brive, who have been busy in the transfer market over the last week as injury cover for former Wales and Lions star Ross Moriarty.
Brive have announced that veteran Ulster scrum-half John Cooney is moving across the channel at the end of the season on a two-year deal and have moved quickly for Stassen.
Stassen, 26, scored three tries in 15 appearances for Stade Francais and played for times for the Stormers this season before jumping at the chance of joining Brive.
Former London Irish and Wallabies lock Rob Simmons has extended his career by at least another season after penning a contract extension with Clermont Auvergne for next season.
Former Brive winger Joris Jurand is also staying with ASM after signing a two-year agreement. Fijian back-row Pita-Gus Sowakula has also agreed on a two-year deal, as has lock Thibaud Lanen.
Clermont will also have the option of extending the agreements of the quartet by another year on top of what they have now signed up for.
