Wanted man… Matt Giteau playing for Toulon.
Matt Giteau has long been lost to the Wallabies for next year’s World Cup, but the bidding in French rugby for his services speaks volumes about his value as a player.
Giteau, an established star in the Top 14 champion Toulon club in the south of France, has reportedly become the target of the Paris-based Racing Metro club with a €1 million ($1.4 million) a year offer reportedly on the table.
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Giteau, 31, declined to comment to Fairfax Media when asked on Tuesday of the Racing Metro offer that was reported by Midi Olympique.
Giteau joined Toulon after his fall-out with former Wallabies coach Robbie Deans who omitted him from the 2011 World Cup squad and he is now one of Toulon’s stars.
Asked about Racing’s offer, the former Brumbies and Wallabies back would only say he is focused on Toulon’s next game and the season ahead.
But Toulon president and owner, Mourad Boudjellal confirmed that Giteau is being sought after by Racing Metro owner Jacky Lorenzetti.
Boudjellal is in a separate dispute with Lorenzetti over allegations by Lorenzetti that Boudjellal has breached the salary cap.
“It’s all part of the game,” Boudjellal told the French newspaper La Provence on Monday when he was asked about Racing Metro’s offer.
“If you don’t want people to make offers to your players, all you have to do is recruit bad ones and losers.
“So this type of situation doesn’t pose a problem to be. I’m not at all upset.”
Then Boudjellal said: “Matt is evidently a player who we hope to keep, but not at any price.”
The approach to Giteau by Racing Metro is reportedly in response to the French club losing five-eighth Johnny Sexton to Irish club Leinster for the 2015-16 season.
But all is not yet settled and it is understood that Boudjellal and Toulon coach Bernard Laporte will sit down to discuss the future with Giteau in the coming weeks.
The absence of Giteau in Australian rugby has been a constant subject of debate.
As Giteau’s former Toulon teammate, English legend Jonny Wilkinson who retired after Toulon won this year’s Heineken Cup and Top 14 titles, said as he hung up his boots: “I don’t quite know how a team ever let him go in Australia to come here.”
Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones told Fairfax Media that the Australian Rugby Union’s inability to keep him and Wallabies legend George Smith, now playing for French Top 14 club Lyon, “is the greatest crime” of the national body.
“They are probably our two most talented players who could be playing for Australia until they are 33 or 34,” Jones said last Sunday during a visit to Sydney.
“You can’t afford to let those players slip through. [In] a small rugby country like Australia you can’t afford the best players to slip away. They’re jewels in the crown.”
Meanwhile, Smith’s reported hopes of playing Sevens for Tonga at the 2016 Olympics in Rio may be dashed if the International Rugby Board moves to prevent the exploitation of its regulations and halt players from switching allegiances.
Changes to eligibility rules mean a player can represent a country provided they have the correct passport and have not been capped by another team for 18 months.
An appearance in just one Olympic qualification event could lead to a player being selected for that nation’s 15-a-side team even though the IRB is trying to reduce the number of dual internationals.
Smith, 34, is believed to be interested in nominating for a switch to Tonga for the Olympics, while Sydney-born Tongan back-rower Steve Mafi wants to put his hand up to represent Australia.
England’s Steffon Armitage, the European player of the year and a star back-row forward with French and European champions Toulon, is reportedly considering his options with France for the 2015 World Cup due to England’s refusal to pick anyone playing club rugby union overseas.
But IRB chief executive Brett Gosper, speaking in London on Tuesday, said the global governing body was aware of the potential pitfalls.
“There is a regulations committee that will look at all applications for transfer and they will look to see if it’s for bona fide Sevens reasons,” Gosper explained.
“There is a safety net and any transfer will have to be passed by the committee. They will act according to the spirit of the law.
“For example, if we have huge props applying for a career in Sevens, then we’ll smell a rat.
“That’s an obvious example and there will be some cases that are in a grey area, but we want to ensure the integrity of the regulation and the spirit behind it is upheld.
“Any obvious abuses that go counter to that spirit of why we’re doing this will be caught in the regulations committee net.
“But players will move in both codes by coming into the Sevens game – that will happen.”