WHAT NEXT IN THE LEIGH HALFPENNY SAGA?

IN just over a month’s time the French Top 14 season begins. A week later domestic business resumes in the Aviva Premiership and the revamped Guinness PRO12 – if we ever get clarity on the latter.

So it is bizarre to consider that someone like Leigh Halfpenny, not so long ago the hottest property in northern hemisphere rugby bar nobody, still does not have a club to play for.

How has it come to this? And where, realistically, can he now turn with the big kick-off so close? The start of the problem... To get a full understanding of Halfpenny’s predicament you have to go back to late 2015.

At the time the Wales and Lions full-back was halfway through his second season with then European champions Toulon and everything was going swimmingly.

Then began inevitable speculation over what he would do at the end of the campaign. Would he exercise his option of a third year in France, would he seek to come home to Wales – and if so to which Region? – or would he do something else?

It was his old team Cardiff Blues who made the loudest noises about Halfpenny, chairman Peter Thomas and chief executive Richard Holland going on the record with their desire to bring the player back to the Arms Park.

There were also links to the Scarlets, but arguably it was Wasps who came closest to his signature.

The English club, resurgent under Halfpenny’s old Arms Park boss Dai Young and buoyed by a successful move to Coventry put a lucrative deal on the table.

Halfpenny was tempted, but worried about the ramifications for his Wales availability if he played in England.

He dithered for too long, so Wasps and Young lost patience and backed out of the deal.

Not keen on a return to a Welsh scene ravaged by political in-fighting and short of cash and resources, Halfpenny opted to stay at Toulon.

However, rightly or wrongly, he didn’t come out of the saga that well. He certainly burned his bridges with Wasps and also gave the impression of indecisiveness. The door back to Wales shuts By December last year the Blues felt able to reveal publicly that they were working with the WRU on a deal to bring Halfpenny back home in time for the start of this coming season. Then came news from France of a new £750,000 a year contract having been waved under Halfpenny’s nose by Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal.

Despite the eye-popping size of that reported offer though, the Blues and the WRU came up with a £420,000 package themselves and it appeared Halfpenny was indeed heading home.

But just as the banners were about to unfurl everything collapsed. Halfpenny wanted his National Dual Contract to run for 28 months up to the end of the 2019 World Cup so he would then be free, if he chose, to try his hand in Super Rugby.

The WRU, on the other hand, were adamant the deal would be for either two or three years.

No resolution could be found and so it was assumed Halfpenny would simply tell Toulon he was staying and put pen to paper on their dotted line. The pre-Lions shock Literally days before Halfpenny was due to leave for the Lions tour at the end of May, his representatives briefed the media that he still hadn’t received a concrete contract offer from Toulon.

The message they wanted Boudjellal to hear was that the whole thing had to be sorted before he went to New Zealand – or else. But unbeknown to the Halfpenny camp the combustible Toulon supremo had changed his mind.

Halfpenny had always had assurances from his club that he would be free to leave on time with the Lions even if there was a clash with the French Top 14 play-offs.

But when he did actually bid them au revoir a week before the final against Clermont which Toulon lost, not least because of costly missed kicks at goal, Boudjellal, notoriously prickly about international player release, snapped.

If indeed a £750,000 contract ever had been drawn up, Boudjellal ordered it be put through the shredder.

Halfpenny and his advisors were left high and dry at a time when spent budgets and full playing rosters around Europe left them with very few other places to turn to. So where does Halfpenny lie now? Before the end of the Lions tour Halfpenny was reportedly ‘relaxed’ about his future, despite it being shrouded in so much uncertainty.

But as we begin the third week since the final Test against New Zealand there is still no news about where he will play this coming season.

Because of his standing in the game it is inconceivable that the situation won’t be sorted out eventually, but his negotiating position is manifestly weaker now than it was even a couple of months ago. So too, you would have to conclude, is his earning potential.

Firstly, there is simply less choice in terms of clubs able to take him on at such a late stage. It’s presently a buyer’s market.

Secondly, Halfpenny’s stock as a playing commodity has fallen because in contrast to 2013 his contribution to the Lions this year was minimal.

He played nine minutes as a substitute in the first Test defeat to the All Blacks and didn’t even make the squad for the second and third encounters.