Transfer news, rumours, speculation, insinuations, and outright transfer slanders - Season 2025/26

[FKAS]

Great addition for Sale if true. Him and Bamber will be fearsome

Or would he play 6 at Sale? With Dan du Preez heading off they'll want some more back row physicality.

[Puja]

Great addition for Sale if true. Him and Bamber will be fearsome

Or would he play 6 at Sale? With Dan du Preez heading off they'll want some more back row physicality.

Gods, I hope not. Just like when Martin was coming up, I hold to my opinion that a powerful and mobile lock is much more valuable than a solid 6. We've got plenty of the latter, few of the former, and the bar of physical requirements is lower there. If we have a player capable of being a powerful lock, we want them there.

Puja

[twitchy]

Great addition for Sale if true. Him and Bamber will be fearsome

Burrow looks to have huge potential also, they are getting a tidy pack together.

[Danno]

Great addition for Sale if true. Him and Bamber will be fearsome

Or would he play 6 at Sale? With Dan du Preez heading off they'll want some more back row physicality.

Gods, I hope not. Just like when Martin was coming up, I hold to my opinion that a powerful and mobile lock is much more valuable than a solid 6. We've got plenty of the latter, few of the former, and the bar of physical requirements is lower there. If we have a player capable of being a powerful lock, we want them there.

Puja

Completely agree, and Sale are certainly hurting for locks

[FKAS]

Or would he play 6 at Sale? With Dan du Preez heading off they'll want some more back row physicality.

Gods, I hope not. Just like when Martin was coming up, I hold to my opinion that a powerful and mobile lock is much more valuable than a solid 6. We've got plenty of the latter, few of the former, and the bar of physical requirements is lower there. If we have a player capable of being a powerful lock, we want them there.

Puja

Completely agree, and Sale are certainly hurting for locks

6 is often a useful way to get a young lock game time whilst they fill out and get experience. Kpoku has played a good chunk at 6 over at Racing. Chessum and Martin played 6 for Tigers as they were coming through. Itoje even made his debut at 6. Kpoku is only 20, game time whether at lock or 6 will be good for him.

[Puja]

Gods, I hope not. Just like when Martin was coming up, I hold to my opinion that a powerful and mobile lock is much more valuable than a solid 6. We've got plenty of the latter, few of the former, and the bar of physical requirements is lower there. If we have a player capable of being a powerful lock, we want them there.

Puja

Completely agree, and Sale are certainly hurting for locks

6 is often a useful way to get a young lock game time whilst they fill out and get experience. Kpoku has played a good chunk at 6 over at Racing. Chessum and Martin played 6 for Tigers as they were coming through. Itoje even made his debut at 6. Kpoku is only 20, game time whether at lock or 6 will be good for him.

I can absolutely understand that, but what I don't want is him getting moved there long-term because Sale want a big ball-carrying back row.

Puja

[Captainhaircut]

Big lad Kpoku but seen nothing to suggest he’s a big carrier. He very rarely carries for Racing and didn’t particularly carry for the under 20s.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Josh Hodge confirmed returning to Newcastle

[FKAS]

Bath make a late bid for Dan du Preez to try and gazump the Sharks of SA. Presumably this is because Barbeary is on the way out.

[Puja]

Bath make a late bid for Dan du Preez to try and gazump the Sharks of SA. Presumably this is because Barbeary is on the way out.

What's gone wrong for Barbeary at Bath? I know he's had his injuries, but he never seems to've gotten the full confidence of van Graan and doesn't seem to be champing at the bit to change that. A change of circumstances might do him the world of good, but I can't really think there'd be many better coaching environments than Bath to go to?

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Barbeary is a funny one. His run of form when he fist go settled at Bath was great, but I’m not really sure what’s changed since then.

Maybe a bit like Mercer his zest for it kind of trailed off when he realised how far down the England pecking order he was? Wouldn’t be surprising to see him off to France.

You feel he could play a role in a 6:2 bench for England just being a pretty 1-dimensional carrier, but I don’t know if he’s got the all round game to be more than that.

[twitchy]

I think he is a lad that loves the match day playing and loves the camaraderie of rugby but hates the "professional" element which is crucial these days. Basically a sort of scaled up semi pro who wants to be just training a few times a week, playing on a Saturday and going out on the town with the lads that night etc.

[Which Tyler]

Always worth noting that it could be just a figment of Fissler's imagination.
Or a replacement for Coetzee, rather than Barb.s

Most likely the former - JvG doesn't seem the type to make a "late bid" signing unless he'd heard that a "good as signed" contract had fallen through and the player was more-or-less a free agent - he's far too fond of his forward planning for that.
Also not the sort of signing that might be forced upon him by Bruce seeing a shiny thing

[FKAS]

Always worth noting that it could be just a figment of Fissler's imagination.
Or a replacement for Coetzee, rather than Barb.s

Most likely the former - JvG doesn't seem the type to make a "late bid" signing unless he'd heard that a "good as signed" contract had fallen through and the player was more-or-less a free agent - he's far too fond of his forward planning for that.
Also not the sort of signing that might be forced upon him by Bruce seeing a shiny thing

van Gran hasn't been shy about going in for a long term prospect who's surprisingly become available and then making the salary cap work later. See Santi Carreras.

Barbeary signed a deal back in 2022 when Wasps went bust didn't he? It was described as long term at the time and now coming to an end he might be looking for a significant uplift that Bath aren't sure about. Barbeary seems the type to come up with the big moments, the busting carry or the critical turnover but the boring grafting stuff not so much. Limited engine as well, not really one to do the full 80 on the regular.

Maybe a move to a side where the pack can't carry a luxury player will give him a firm kick up the backside.

[Which Tyler]

Yeah, I can easily believe that Barbeary is off contract, and not satisfying JvG (though I don't think it's the case).
He signed 2 contracts after Wasps went bust - the "what we can offer" and the longer term market value contract.
I would absolutely accept that he hasn't lived up to his hype from then, and his market value may well have decreased.

I think bad news about Coetzee's recovery seems more likely than JvG being unsatisfied. Either way though, with Barbs/Coetze and Reid and Bayliss and Green, I don't think we'd be looking for an 8 like DDP.

JvG jumping for Carreras when his contract négations stalled is one thing, DDP is not as classy as Carreras where you make the planning work later. Though I did acknowledge that he might still go with a late offer if the negotiations are breaking down.

More to the point, it's Fidsser, releasing 3 speculations in one day, with nothing at all backing the assertion, including the observed behaviour of the parties involved.

[Adam_P]

Kemeny has renewed at Saints. I was excited when we first signed him, and since coming back from injury at the start of this season he has been electric. Very good man to keep.

[FKAS]

Good re-signing for Saints.

Franco Molina joining Newcastle after the completion of the 2026 Super Rugby season. Not sure that's a big improvement.

[FKAS]

Aaron Wainwright to Tigers is doing the rounds. Even on the BBC which gives it some credibility. Rumours in Wales are Dragons countered to match what Tigers offered but Wainwright wanted a move away from Wales.

[Danno]

Hard to blame him, or any other Welsh player fleeing the debacle over there at the moment

[FKAS]

Hard to blame him, or any other Welsh player fleeing the debacle over there at the moment

Rumours at the time were we looked to sign him a couple of years ago. He opted to stay at the Dragons then, presumably on the promise they'd be positive change. There hasn't been and with the general mess in Welsh rugby, second time round he seems to be making a different decision.

[Danno]

Great signing for ya if true

[FKAS]

Great signing for ya if true

Only coming in because Liebenburg is heading back to SA or at least that's the rumour. Takes the shine off the signing a bit. Liebenburg never has a bad game and offers a lineout option that's better than most second rows. He's a big loss if true.

[Captainhaircut]

Wales going to run the Scotland strategy of having only 2 clubs to keep their costs low whilst letting English clubs pay for their stars and also develop their young players.

The RFU just sit back and allow it. I know everyone disagrees but we really need to reduce the amount of non-English in squads.

[FKAS]

Wales going to run the Scotland strategy of having only 2 clubs to keep their costs low whilst letting English clubs pay for their stars and also develop their young players.

The RFU just sit back and allow it. I know everyone disagrees but we really need to reduce the amount of non-English in squads.

Scotland's SH infused golden generation is starting to fade and outside of that they've been largely rubbish for the last 25 years. Wales going the same way is fine by me. With the increase to give years in residency there's no more easy imports to prop either side up. Added to that Wales don't have a well run club like Scotland do with Glasgow.

We'll take the Welsh youngsters and hopefully convince, IFW style, the best dual qualified ones to see the light.

Increasing EQ required numbers without first substantially increasing the quality of EQ players is just a race to the bottom.

[Mikey Brown]

Really? You don’t care if Wales just drop off the map? Is their mis-management and lack of funding that offensive? Why wouldn’t you want them to be a good side too?

There’s a point (with all sports I guess) where this all becomes so centred around who has got the most money that I just stop caring who even wins games.