Joseph set to agree two-year extension
England international centre Jonathan Joseph has agreed terms for a new two-year contract extension to stay at the Rec according to the latest reports.
Joseph, 30, is out of contract at Bath at the end of the season and the club had reportedly offered him a new oneyear deal at the turn of the year, but now an improved two-year deal has been agreed with the 54-cap England international centre to extend his stay despite Sale Sharks reportedly keen to lure the outside centre north.
Joseph has been at the Recreation Ground since 2013 after signing from London Irish but last summer he looked to be on the verge of leaving the club for Top 14 side Toulon. However, that move would have required the French club to reportedly pay Bath a six-figure transfer fee after Joseph signed a contract extension in the summer of 2020 as the club agreed a number of new deals during renegotiations ahead of the salary cap reduction.
The new yet to be announced twoyear contract for Joseph, as reported by The Rugby Paper, is an intriguing one as the same publication reports Johann van Graan - who will arrive at Bath this summer from Munster as the club’s new head coach, is reportedly keen on bringing South African World Cup winner Damian de Allende with him from Munster to the club.
de Allende, 30, is expected to leave Munster this summer with Wasps’ former All Black star Malakai Fekitoa already announced as a major new signing in the same position for the Irish province ahead of the 2022/23 season. Sources in South Africa suggest de Allende is more likely to take a big-money move to the Japanese League One, with the Kintetsu Liners and Saitama Wild Knights both interested in his services.
While able to play at 13, de Allende is more traditionally an inside centre where Bath are well stacked with young talent having secured academy product Max Ojomoh on a two-year senior deal just last week, along with Scottish international Cam Redpath.
Despite returning to club duty this weekend with the Six Nations in a fallow week, Hatley provided some insight into why Cam Redpath was not in the matchday squad to face Leicester in Bath’s 24-20 home defeat on Saturday.
He said: “Cam came back from Scotland with a little niggle so we weren’t going to push anything.
“We have been here before with Cam, he is a 21-year-old and he has already missed a lot of rugby [with an ACL injury], we are not going to push him. Scotland took him out some of their stuff last week and we have done the same thing. We just need to make sure we manage him well.”
Bath face an intriguing problem in the coming years of having two of their best young backs prospects playing in the same position, in Redpath and 21-year-old Ojomoh who was called up to train with the England senior team in the summer but did not make his senior debut.
However, Hatley believes the pair could form a successful partnership in the centres moving forward.
He said: “Both of them at the moment are more naturally 12s but if you speak to Ojo he can play anywhere.
“I think they can definitely play together, they are two young players and Ojo is getting better and better every week.
“He can sniff the try line out which is a good skill to have so that is definitely a pairing that could work.”