Justin Tipuric’s representatives have denied a report suggesting the Wales and Ospreys forward is weighing up a £500,000-a-year offer to join Bristol Bears.
The world-rated flanker is out of contract at the end of the season and certain to attract a lot of interest. The Rugby Paper say the battle for his signature has already started with Bristol dangling a potentially major salary increase in front of the 30-year-old.
But quite who made such a bid is unclear.
Tipuric’s agents at Win Sports Management say they haven’t received an enquiry from Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam or anyone connected with the club. It is thought that Lam is an admirer of Tipuric, however.
And that the player will be a wanted man is not in doubt.
He has just completed an outstanding Rugby World Cup, impressing in pretty much every game he played and prompting no less a figure than Lawrence Dallaglo to comment that the Welshman would be eulogised if he were an All Black.
The certainty is that the Ospreys will have to go some to retain him.
In the same report, TRP reckon Clermont Auvergne, Toulon and Toulouse are also interested in the 73-cap openside.
But moving outside Wales could have a downside for Tipuric in that he might not be available for all national squad training sessions and matches.
Unless a customised agreement were struck, he wouldn’t be able to play in games outside the Test window. It might be hard to correct that situation in an arrangement with an English club, with Premiership Rugby Limited having a general policy that their teams not should not release players to other countries for out-of-window internationals.
If he went to France, he would be on the gruelling treadmill of the Top 14, which this term started on August 24 and finishes with a final on June 26.
The decision is a far-from-straightforward one for Tipuric , then, but the certainty is the Ospreys would not want to lose their homegrown back rower from Trebanos, who has stayed loyal to them for a decade.
