Steffon Armitage’s hopes of featuring for England at next year’s Rugby World Cup are in danger of being scuppered by the collapse of a proposed move from Toulon to Bath. With the clubs unable to agree financial terms the flanker now faces an uneasy wait to discover if anyone else across the Channel can afford to employ him.
His prospects of a swift return now hinge on whether Toulon opt to play him in their opening European Champions’ Cup fixture against the Scarlets on Sunday. Bath’s head coach, Mike Ford, has suggested Armitage’s chances of a move to England “will be dead in the water” if he is ineligible to play European games for another club.
Toulon’s owner, Mourad Boudjellal, and his Bath counterpart, Bruce Craig, had been discussing a possible deal and Ford said he was “gutted” no agreement could be reached. “We were so close to signing a great player who would have helped club and country,” he said. “I spoke to Steff at the weekend and he just wanted to come and play for Bath and have a shot at the World Cup. I feel a bit sorry for him that it hasn’t happened but that’s the way life works sometimes. There was no other club talking to him from what I can see. I think it would have been great for England as well for Stuart Lancaster to be able to pick a player of that potential with a World Cup around the corner.”
Ford added he did not envisage any other Premiership side signing the 29-year-old European player of the year should he line up on Sunday. “If he plays for Toulon in the European Champions’ Cup this weekend I’d be stupid to sign him because obviously he can’t then play for us,” he told Sky Sports News. “If that happens it’s dead in the water. At this moment in time it looks like he will.” The deadline for registering players for the opening round of the Champions Cup expired at lunchtime on Tuesday, although additional pool players can be added if they have yet to represent another competing club.
The Rugby Football Union has denied being involved in facilitating any deal, despite a suggestion to the contrary from Ford, but the former England captain Lewis Moody believes a way must be found to reintegrate Armitage into the squad prior to the World Cup. “Steffon Armitage has been the form back-rower in European rugby for the last two years … it has been tragic we’ve not been able to add him to an England squad,” said Moody. “To have one of your best players unable to play for you because he’s playing in another country is a real shame.”
