Toulon owner rules out new contract for Leigh – reports

TOULON president Mourad Boudjellal has confirmed the club no longer want Leigh Halfpenny and will not be offering a contract extension, according to a report in France.

Speculation has been rife for weeks that the Wales and Lions star is on his way from the French giants.

He missed the Top 14 final defeat against Clermont because he had to depart for the Lions tour on the Monday before Toulon’s loss and that might have been the final straw for Boudjellal, who has blamed the international game for his decision.

Halfpenny was not involved in the Lions’ latest action on tour, a narrow 23-22 defeat to the Highlanders in Dunedin yesterday.

“I did not want to extend it,” Boudjellal is quoted as saying by the RMC Sport website.

“It is not for nothing. It the fault of the international system and internationals being absent too often. If he had stayed he would have returned in early August and missed the first three games because he could not have played for a month.”

The question of where Halfpenny will play next season will now be an extremely pressing one, even if for now his focus will be with the Lions.

Already a proposed deal to sign a £420,000 national dual contract with the Blues and the WRU has fallen through because of the two sides could not agree on the length of the deal.

Last month, sources close to Halfpenny told WalesOnline that the offer originally made by Toulon, said to be worth a huge £750,000 a year needed to be signed and sealed before he left for New Zealand with the Lions. It wasn’t, and now Boudjellal has withdrawn it.

With clubs having committed their budgets and assembled their playing squads for the new season, Halfpenny, even though his is a coveted signature, may find his options limited when he returns in July.

Given the previous breakdown and the financial limitations of the regions, a move back to Wales now appears unlikely.