It’s clearly time for fly-halves to buzz off elsewhere
THIS year’s annual fly half merry-go-round will surely break all records. At the last count, no fewer than 18 of the species, the majority of them internationals, will be wearing different colours next season.
For AJ MacGinty, the Irishman who flies under the Stars and Stripes, a change of club will mean morphing from a Shark into a Bear. George Ford will go from a Tiger to a Shark, Will HaydonWood from a Falcon to a Wasp.
Toulon losing both their Test tens, Louis Carbonel and Anthony Belleau, smacks of carelessness. Ihaia West, La Rochelle’s uncapped Kiwi, leaves the newly-crowned champions, his change of scenery from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean
making room for Antoine Hastoy’s move from Pau.
The full list covers a multitude of clubs across the Premiership, Top 14 and what was once the Celtic League, alias the United Rugby Championship.
AJ MacGinty (Sale to Bristol), George Ford (Leicester to Sale), Louis Carbonel (Toulon to Montpellier), Handrie Pollard (Montpellier to Leicester), Jimmy Gopperth (Wasps to Leicester), Will Haydon-Wood (Newcastle to Wasps), Tiann Schoeman (Bath to Newcastle), Piers Francis (Northampton to Bath), Danny Cipriani (Bath to Dallas), Ihaia West (La Rochelle to Toulon), Anthony Belleau (Toulon to Clermont), Camille Lopez (Clermont to Bayonne), JJ Hanrahan (Clermont to Dragons), Angus O’Brien (Scarlets to Dragons), Jack Walsh (Exeter to Ospreys), Jules Plisson (La Rochelle to Pau), Antoine Hastoy (Pau to La Rochelle), Zack Holmes (Toulouse to Bordeaux).