Toulon in £500k bid for Taulupe
TOULON are ready to join the race to land Wales and British Lions superstar Taulupe Faletau at the end of
the season. The powerful No.8 is due to be under contract to Bath until the end of next season but he has been attracting the interest of his former club the Dragons. They are keen for him to form a partnership with Ross Moriarty who is leaving West Country rivals Gloucester when his contract runs out at the end of the season. And they are known to be putting together a lucrative package which would make him Wales’ highest paid player, which will be Moriarty from next season. But Toulon could throw a spanner in the works even though Warren Gatland wants as many of his squad playing in the Principality as possible. Tonga-born Faletau has played 70 times for his adopted country so would be free to continue playing outside of Wales and still be selected by Gatland.
It means the Top 14 giants are ready to test Bath’s resolve of making Faletau see out the final season of his contract by offering them a £500,000 transfer fee.
Faletau, who joined Bath from the Dragons in 2016, will be offered a contract worth €1million a season (£880,000) in France which would be way beyond what the Welsh region can afford.
Blindside understands that another stumbling block to the twice Grand Slam winner returning to South Wales will be Bath’s demands of a fee for the last year of his deal.
Meanwhile Bath have until Tuesday to respond to Premiership Rugby’s charge of allowing Faletau to play for Wales last weekend outside the test window.
Bath face a £60,000 fine which is the amount that Northampton Saints had to cough up for a similar offence involving George North four years ago.