Habana will be in line for his 102nd cap against the Wallabies in Cape Town next weekend, but the Toulon owner earlier this week demanded that Habana along with Bakkies Botha and Argentina's Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe return to play for their club.
That make the RFU wary of including Steffon in their plans.
I would place my money on Bath seem to have cash to burn. That said they have done very well to sign all their big names even under the new salary cap.
Without hope we are nothing, keep the faith, a Tiger for eternity
sapajo wrote:I would place my money on Bath seem to have cash to burn. That said they have done very well to sign all their big names even under the new salary cap.
Depends on how the loan deal works if it happens.
Will Toulon want Armitage to potentially face them in the KO if it happens, will Bath fork over the whole wage he is on or will it be split.
I still think it's disgusting that if you play abroad, you are not considered eligible to play for England. One wonders what the position would have been on Johnny Wilkinson if he had been playing abroad in 2002. If I were Armitage I would not take a pay cut to move from Toulon to a premiership club just for the sake of international representation. For God sake man think of your family's future at best your playing career will only last 16 years and you have the rest of your life to think about. Always put your Family First.
Noddy555 wrote:I still think it's disgusting that if you play abroad, you are not considered eligible to play for England. One wonders what the position would have been on Johnny Wilkinson if he had been playing abroad in 2002. If I were Armitage I would not take a pay cut to move from Toulon to a premiership club just for the sake of international representation. For God sake man think of your family's future at best your playing career will only last 16 years and you have the rest of your life to think about. Always put your Family First.
You underplay the amount of money players make from international Rugby.
You also make it sound like he'd be on a pauper's wage i the Premiership - thinking of your family is fine, but financial gain isn't the only reason you take a job - if I could move somewhere for slightly less money but a massive upshot in prestige and post-career opportunities, I'd be tempted. A lot of people would.
Also the situation for Wilkinson in 2002 would have been "you decide what means more to you - the cash or playing for your country". That's the deal, all the players know it and have done for years.
Apparently it is emerging that Bath are favourites to sign him with Craig being mates with his fellow Toulon rich boys club owner and obviously having a wealth of cash at their disposal.
Back row options of Louw (injured at present I know) Fearns, Garvey, Sisi, Houston, Fa'osiliva, Mercer and Armitage would be absolutely ridiculous....Some big lumps there!
And I am sure playing for England has got to be one of if not the most lucrative of all international teams!
Apparently its hours away and a done deal...Wow Bath have a great team this year I feel if they just had a world class 9 and a better number 8 they would be complete with all that Burgess power coming must be a great time to be a Bath fan..
Interesting, we assume Bath had planned to spend up to the salary cap plus the two marquee players and Armitage is an extra or is he the second outside the salary cap. I see that there will be a transfer fee paid which as I understand it counts against the salary cap or maybe not in the case of a Marquee player. Also Toulon seem to have a different philosophy re transfer fees when due to receive to when they should pay (Castro).
JackFlashJonny wrote:Apparently it is emerging that Bath are favourites to sign him with Craig being mates with his fellow Toulon rich boys club owner and obviously having a wealth of cash at their disposal.
And any deal regarding transfer fees, if any, will be settled between maverick French billionaire club owner and French-speaking English millionaire club owner. The questions posed by the PRL into when/how much/how any transfer fee which might impact the cap was/was not paid will need to be very precise and leave no scope for wriggling by Craig. How Boudjellal deals with it concerns me not a jot.
Definite win for the RFU though and the selection policy
I am sure there will be some eyebrows raised across the land, maybe Louw is off back to South Africa otherwise I do not know how they could possibly have room in their cap for him....Bath makes sense though with Toby Booth obviously knowing Armitage well from LI and actually being able to offer him a real shot at trophies this season instead of mid/bottom table scrapping!
Exactly Tom it must be wriggle free!
And at the last minute it COLLAPSES what a day for Rugby drama:
If he's coming back and we haven't thrown our hat in the ring, then I'm disgusted. Out and out world class back rower, we ought to be stepping on people's heads and tripping over ourselves to make him an offer.
Ka mate, ka mate! Ka ora! ka ora!
Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
Tçnei te tangata pûhuruhuru
Nâna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te râ
A upa ... ne! ka upa ... ne!
A upane kaupane whiti te ra!
murphy15 wrote:If he's coming back and we haven't thrown our hat in the ring, then I'm disgusted. Out and out world class back rower, we ought to be stepping on people's heads and tripping over ourselves to make him an offer.
We might have wanted to but I doubt we have enough space in the salary cap to sign him. We've been linked with Dusatoir and he's a world class player.
