Yahoo News Rugby transfer rumours and news: Northampton Saints add lock, Sale Sharks to sign Springbok
Players are already returning to pre-season training at club around the Gallagher Premiership as preparations for the 2024/25 season get underway. That includes recruitment as the rugby transfer market continues to bubble with activity now clubs up and down the country have confirmed their departing players.
Here is a look at all the latest comings and goings around the Gallagher Premiership...
READ MORE: Bristol Bears confirm 38-player senior squad for 2024/25 season with Chris Vui absent
Sale Sharks set to sign Springbok hooker
Sale Sharks are reported to have signed Springboks hooker Joseph Dweba from the Stormers according to The South African.
Dweba, 28, has six caps for South Africa but is currently out of the picture on the international scene and is reported to be heading to Manchester as a replacement for departing Argentina great Agustin Creevy.
Toulon confirm the signing of former Saints captain
24-cap England international flanker Lewis Ludlam has joined Toulon on a three year contract the French Top 14 side have officially confirmed.
The former Northampton Saints skipper, who made 126 appearances for the club, had long been rumoured to be joining Kyle Sinckler at Toulon but the move has now been confirmed having helped his Premiership side lift the league trophy earlier this month.
Leicester Tigers appoint new head coach
Leicester Tigers have confirmed Michael Cheika as the club’s new head coach ahead of the 2024/25 season having parted company with Dan McKellar last week.
Cheika arrives at Welford Road after a two-year stint as head coach of the Argentina national team, who he led to fourth place at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
At club level, Cheika was won a European cup and Celtic League at the helm of Leinster and was a Super Rugby winner with the NSW Waratahs,. On the international stage he has coached at three Rugby World Cups – Argentina in 2023 and reaching the final with Australia in 2015 and quarter finals in 2019 – as well as one Rugby League World Cup with Lebanon.
Northampton Saints snap up NFL pathway hopeful
Northampton Saints have picked up 6ft 8in tall lock George Smith after the former Coventry forward missed out on landing a club having been in the NFL International Player Pathway programme in the USA alongside Louis Rees-Zammit.
Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson said: “George’s superpower is that he is 6ft 8in and he can move really quickly. The guy is unbelievably physical. When he first arrived, we tested him and his power-per-kilogram scores were incredible – the best we’ve seen in years."
Stuart Hogg and Billy Vunipola sign for Montpellier
Former Scotland captain Stuart Hogg has come out of his early retirement to sign for French Top 14 club Montpellier, along with former Saracens and England number eight Billy Vunipola.
Hogg, 31, played his last competitive game was for Exeter Chiefs back in April 2023, but has signed a two-year contract with the option for a third season at the club. The British and Irish Lion will replace Anthony Bouthier, who suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament in his knee at the end of April and will not play before 2025.
Elliott Stooke leaves Bath
Powerful second-row Elliott Stooke will leave Bath Rugby at the end of the 2023/24 season, the club have officially confirmed.
Stooke re-joined the Blue, Black and White last November having previously played for the club before leaving in 2021 to sign for Wasps and later Bristol Bears and Montpellier following Wasps' demise. The 6ft6 lock made 14 appearances for Bath during the 2023/24 season, including as a replacement in this year’s Premiership final defeat against Northampton Saints.
Fijian international departs Premiership champions for France
Northampton Saints hooker Sam Matavesi who has left the Premiership champions to join French Top 14 club Lyon.
The 32-year-old Fijian international joined Northampton from Cornish Pirates and made 89 appearances during his five-season spell at Franklin’s Gardens.
Lock leaves Saracens
Second-row Callum Hunter-Hill has left Saracens this summer after five years at the club.
The lock made 81 appearances for the Men in Black after joining in 2019 and will now move on to a new challenge
Rob du Preez signs new deal with Sale Sharks
South African fly-half Rob du Preez has signed a new deal with Sale Sharks keeping him at the club until the end of the 2025/26 season.
The versatile 30-year-old, who has made 134 appearances for the club and scored almost 800 points, took up an option of an additional two years in 2023 and has now signed an extension to his contract meaning he and brothers Jean-Luc and Dan are now committed to the club for two more seasons.
Tigers add Coventry star centre
Leicester Tigers have announced the signing of Coventry Rugby Player of the Season Will Wand.
The 22-year-old centre is a lifelong Tigers fan with previous links to the club’s pathways and development teams. He scored 14 tries in 22 appearances for Coventry last season and was named in the Championship’s Team of the Season at outside-centre.
Bristol Bears miss out on keeping French international
France international centre Virimi Vakatawa will not be at Bristol Bears next season, the club have confirmed
The 32-year-old centre made 19 appearances for the Premiership side last season, scoring four tries, after he was given a route back into professional rugby by the Bears having been ruled unfit to play in France due to a heart condition. Having played for a Barbarians team coached by Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam last summer, a move to the West Country was quickly agreed after an independent board of cardiologists passed the former Racing 92 star fit to play.
Bristol had been keen to keep him at the club, but the Fijian-born back, who played for the Barbarians just last weekend in their victory over Fiji, will play elsewhere having initially signed for the Bears on a cut-price contract having been out of game for over a year.
Exeter Chiefs centre target resigns for Ealing Trailfinders
Reported Exeter Chiefs centre target Reuben Bird-Tulloch has opted to re-sign with his current Championship club Ealing Trailfinders instead of moving to the West Country.
Bird-Tulloch, who came through the Saracens academy and played for Northampton Saints, is one of six contract extensions confirmed by Ealing today who appeared bolstered by the news their chances of winning promotion into the Gallagher Premiership have been greatly improved ahead of next season.
Sale Sharks confirm 10 departing players
Sale Sharks have confirmed 10 players will leave the club this summer.
The Premiership side had already confirmed the departures of Sam James, Manu Tuilagi, Cobus Wiese, Cameron Neild and Agustin Creevy and in addition, forwards Tom Ellis, Cal Ford and Ewan Murphy, academy fly-half Finn Rogers and full-back Telusa Veainu will also leave the club.
