With pre-season due to begin next week the rugby transfer market is in full swing with more players on the move and still looking for clubs late in the year than ever.
With budget cuts being imposed on the 13 Gallagher Premiership clubs due to the reduced salary cap it is the players feeling the pinch as directors of rugby up and down the country look for last-minute deals put together their final squads ahead of the 2022/23 season.
Here are all the latest transfer rumours, confirmed moves and contract renewals....
READ MORE: Uncapped Bristol Bears forward called up by England to replace injured Bath skipper
Sale Sharks powerhouses linked with exits
Sale Sharks' South African powerhouse brothers Jean-Luc and Dan du Preez are being courted by a number of French Top 14 clubs interested in signing the pair when their contracts at the AJ Bell expire at the end of next season according to the lastest reports.
The Rugby Paper reports the CVs of both men are doing the rounds in France.
Meanwhile, Sale could be forced to turn to the transfer market this summer to bring in an injury replacement for England star George Ford who ruptured his Achillies in his former club Leicester Tigers' Premiership final win.
USA international stand off AJ MacGinty is leaving Sale for Bristol this summer.
South African exits Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers have confirmed Springbok backrower Marco Van Staden will depart the club in the summer and return to South Africa to continue his injury rehabilitation.
The 26-year-old made eight appearances in his only season at the club after arriving during the opening months of the 2021/22 campaign after Test appearances for South Africa in the 2021 Rugby Championship.
The club have confirmed seven players will leave Leicester Tigers this summer:
- Sam Aspland-Robinson
- George Ford
- Ellis Genge
- Matías Moroni
- Juan Pablo Socino
- Marco van Staden
- Jaco Taute
During the 2021/22 season Tigers parted company with: Cyle Brink, Dan Lancaster and Kobus van Wyk - as well as seeing long-serving Tigers player and former captain, Tom Youngs, retire from professional rugby in April.
Welshman commits to Gloucester Rugby
Welsh fly-half Lloyd Evans has signed a new deal to remain at Kingsholm the club have confirmed
Evans, now 26, came through the club's academy having studied at Dean Close School in Cheltenham which is where he first established a connection with the Gallagher Premiership side.
Having made his senior debut back in 2013, Lloyd has racked up 60 appearances in Cherry and White and really grew as a key member of the squad when he stepped into the breach as the club's number one fly-half when Danny Cipriani left Kingsholm midway through the 2020/21 season.
Fijian international swaps Saints for Exiles
London Irish have confirmed the signing of Api Ratuniyarawa from Northampton Saints.
The experienced lock will join Declan Kidney’s squad when preparations begin for the 2022/23 season.
Ratuniyarawa, who has made 130 appearances for Saints in his six seasons at Franklin’s Gardens, arrived in the Midlands from Agen in 2016 and went on to reach the Premiership semi-finals and win a Premiership Rugby Cup for Northampton.
The 6ft 6ins, 19 stone second-row forward was awarded Saints’ Breakthrough Player of the Season in his first full season in 2017/18 and has appeared for Saints in four Champions Cup campaigns.
In 2012, the Fijian made his international debut in front of a Twickenham crowd against England, representing his country in the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups, scoring two tries on the biggest rugby stage.
Chiefs lock leaves for France
Exeter Chiefs have agreed to release Will Witty from his contract, the Premiership club have confirmed.
Witty, 27, will join French Top 14 side Perpignan ahead of the 2022/23 season.
Yorkshireman Witty joined the Chiefs back in 2019 from Newcastle Falcons and went on to make 30 appearances for the Devon club, scoring five tries.
Championship winners sign Sale Sharks backs
Ealing Trailfinders have confirmed the signing of versatile Sale Sharks back Jack Metcalf.
The highly-rated 21-year-old, who can play centre, wing or fullback, joins Trailfinders following a successful 2021/22 season playing for Sale Sharks. J
Metcalf made 12 first-team appearances and scored four tries, including crossing for a Champions Cup try against Ospreys in January during his 14 months at the club and also featured on loan for Sale FC, scoring 11 tries and helping the National 1 club finish second behind Caldy.
Gloucester re-sign academy duo
Gloucester Rugby have confirmed Cameron Jordan and Bryan O’Connor have both re-signed with the Cherry and White Academy.
Cameron Jordan joined the club from Leicester Tigers Academy in the summer of 2020 and made his Gloucester Rugby debut against Lyon this season where he scored a try with his first touch of the game when he came on off the bench.
Bryan O’Connor is an Ireland U20 international prop who can play on both sides of the scrum. He made his Gloucester Rugby debut against Northampton last season.
Former Bristol Bears prop joins new club at 40
Former Tongan international prop Soane Tonga'uiha has joined South West One East side Banbury RUFC as player coach.
The former Northampton Saints and Bristol Bears prop is now 40 but is showing no signs of slowing down.
He will also be head coach at the club,
Former Bath and Northampton props makes United Rugby Championship switch
Edinburgh Rugby have completed the signing of loosehead prop Nick Auterac ahead of the 2022/23 season.
Auterac, 29, will make the move north this summer after leaving Premiership side Northampton Saints this month.
The former Saracens, Bath and Harlequins front-rower was named in the Scotland squad for last year’s cancelled Sumer Tests and now readies himself for what he calls ‘an extremely exciting next chapter’ north of the border.
Gloucester Rugby part company with key coach
Alex King and Peter Walton have left Gloucester as head coach George Skivington has confirmed his coaching team for the 2022/23 season.
The departure of former England international King, 47, comes as a surprise to many with very few changes in personnel at Kingsholm in the playing squad between the 2021/22 and 2022/23 campaigns with pre-season due to get underway on Monday.
Skivington signed a new long-term deal earlier this year, and defence coach Dom Waldouck has agreed a new contract to remain at Kingsholm.
Gloucester’s defence has gone from strength to strength this season, most notably recording a clean sheet in the 64-0 victory over West Country rivals Bath.
Skivington and Waldouck will work alongside Tim Taylor and Trevor Woodman in the coming season.
Sevens star coach Ben Ryan takes football job
Brentford Football Club have swooped to land one of the best coaching brains in rugby to sign star sevens coach Ben Ryan as director of elite performance at the Premier League side.
Ryan is best known for his coaching work in rugby sevens, leading England team for six years and then the Fiji national team. He was in charge of the Fiji side when rugby sevens was introduced to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Fiji won the Gold medal, their first ever Olympic medal, under his leadership.
Phil Giles, Brentford FC Director of Football, said: "Ben brings huge experience of how to reach elite level across a range of sports and has a coaching background which will help him work effectively with Thomas. He is also a Brentford fan, so already understands the Club, knows what we’ve achieved already, and what we want to achieve together in future.”
Exiles snap up Championship duo
London Irish have confirmed the signings of Ed Scragg and Josh Caulfield from Championship outfit Cornish Pirates.
Scragg, who is most comfortable in the second row, is a Wales under-20s representative and was capped in two Under 20 Six Nations campaigns and the 2019 Junior World Cup, also pulling on the Cardiff Metropolitan University shirt alongside new teammate Tom Pearson.
Scragg's signing is considered a real coup at the Brentford Community Stadium with Bath also chasing the youngster.
Caulfield made his move to Cornwall permanent in 2020 after being dual-registered with Exeter Chiefs the previous four years and can play at lock and across the back-row.
The 24-year-old has exceeded a century of appearances for Pirates and boasts a wealth of age-grade experience with the England team, playing in the under-16s, under-18s and under 20s sides.
