Joseph ‘absolutely committed’ to Bath
Fifty-four cap England international Jonathan Joseph will be a Bath Rugby player this season but the future of his Fijian international centre partner Josh Matavesi is still undecided.
Director of rugby Stuart Hooper has clarified the situation with both players following months of speculation, with Joseph, 30, linked with a move to Toulon back in the spring and now Matavesi, also 30, reported to be a target for a number of Japanese Top League clubs.
Cornish-born Matavesi has 24 caps for Fiji and joined the Blue, Black and White in January 2020 from Newcastle Falcons as a direct replacement for Jamie Roberts, who was allowed to leave The Rec midseason to join South African Super Rugby side the Stormers.
But having already played for Exeter Chiefs, Newcastle Falcons, Ospreys, Racing Metro and Worcester Warriors as well as Bath, Matavesi is in talks about signing for a seventh professional club. Talking exclusively to Somerset Live, Hooper said: “JJ [Jonathan Joseph] is absolutely fully committed. He and I have had a number of conversations. There was speculation in the press but JJ is absolutely committed to Bath and he is desperate to have a great season, which is great for us.”
But the situation with Matavesi remains in flux. Hooper explained: “We are currently talking, me and Josh, about what the future looks like for him. There has been interest from elsewhere which is of interest to him as well.
“There hasn’t been any agreement yet so I can’t confirm either way whether he will or won’t be here but we are certainly in discussion about the terms in which he could leave.”
Hooper’s potential willingness to let Matavesi leave the club is motivated in part by the raft of young talent coming through at centre with Cam Redpath, 21, Max Ojomoh, 21 this month, and Will Butt, 21, all competing for a place in the matchday squad this season.
Redpath remains sidelined with an ACL knee injury he sustained towards the end of last season and is expected to be out for several months, but Hooper still has relative depth in midfield.
He said: “I am hugely confident about Max Ojomoh and Will Butt and whenever you have a squad you have got to make decisions to allow people to grow.
“What you don’t want to be doing is blocking people from growing.
“We have got Max who has been away with England and he has given himself a fantastic opportunity by going there and putting himself in a new environment where he has learnt a lot of new things and shown what he can do.
“I have seen a lot from Max over the years and he has always had a tremendous natural ability with the ball, he is a great passer, but the thing that shows me he is ready is he has really worked incredibly hard. He has made a huge change in himself physically, he is a powerful athlete now and the rate of improvement he has shown and the dedication to get to the point where he was being picked in the Premiership is a big shift in him.”
He added: “Will Butt has spent some time at Cov [on loan] and got some game time there and he has come back into pre-season absolutely firing.”
Hooper continued: “I have got a huge amount of confidence in those guys but equally I have got a lot of time, respect and I care a lot about Josh, so we need to come to an agreement which works for everybody. We haven’t yet, but when we do I will be happy to tell you.”