Top 14: Giteau wants to play in France;
Biarritz replace Delmas with Gonzalez
28 November 2008
Australia fly-half Matt Giteau is the latest
star name to admit that he wants to play French club rugby
in the Top 14.
Giteau, who revealed his desire in French
rugby newspaper Midi Olympique, said he would like a similar
deal to that offered to All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter, who
has been given a six-month sabbatical to play for Perpignan
by the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU).
Giteau, who is contracted to the Australian
Rugby Union (ARU), has been instrumental to the Wallabies’
success on their current European tour and was clearly
smitten by his time spent in France recently.
“After the tour, I am going to discuss with
the federation to see if it will authorise me to get some
experience in France like what the NZRU did with Carter,” he
said.
“It would be fantastic. I adore your country,
your way of life, your food, the croissants at breakfast,”
he was reported as saying.
Giteau indicated he would like to play in
France some time before the next World Cup in 2011, but the
likelihood is that it would be sooner rather than later.
This is in part due to the fact he is reportedly in conflict
with the Western Force, his Australian franchise.
Reports suggest he is unhappy due to money he
is owed for a sponsorship deal and that he is seeking to
leave the club immediately.
“I am going to settle all that [the
outstanding financial disagreement] with my agent as soon as
I return to Australia,” he said.
Giteau is just the latest
in a line of star players currently eyeing up the Top 14,
following hot on the heals of the Springboks’ former IRB
Player of the Year Bryan Habana. (read
more)
Sebastien Chabal has also said he will be
returning to France next season after his English sojourn
with Sale, and with Carter linking up with Perpignan next
week it seems the biggest names in rugby are now heading to
the wealthy French clubs.
Elsewhere, struggling Biarritz have
replaced forwards coach Jacques Delmas with former French
hooker Jean-Michel Gonzalez after three successive defeats
left them pondering life in the bottom half of Top 14.
The club have acted to reverse a worrying
slump after recent reverses at home to Bayonne in the Basque
derby, away to Perpignan and then again on the road at lowly
Toulon.
President Marcel Martin this week issued a
rallying cry to the club’s supporters as they prepare for
another tough match at home to Stade Francais.
“It is in difficult times that one knows who
are the true supporters and partners, those who are present
in rain and wind, when the team is going well and when it is
going badly. We need to feel their warmth,” he said.
That last sentence became doubly true as
winter firmly gripped the south of France this week ahead of
the round 12 clashes.
“It is normal for supporters to be uneasy. In
the last few years they were made to dream. They worry
because they do not see their hopes realised,” he added.
But
Martin said he had “confidence in this squad” and hoped
Saturday would bring a reversal of fortune as they take on
the Paris giants.
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