Former Scarlets scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne has resurfaced in France as a medical joker, changing course at the last minute and joining Racing 92 rather than Toulouse.
The Scotland international left West Wales just over a week ago after mutually agreeing to part company with the Scarlets .
He looked bound for Toulouse , only for a phone call from Racing attack coach Mike Prendergast to prompt a rethink and see Hidalgo-Clyne sign a short-term deal with Mike Phillips' ex-club in Paris.
“I was looking to sign with Toulouse — we were in talks — and I was pretty much about to sign for them,” Hidalgo-Clyne told The Offside Line website.
“Then on Thursday night Racing came in and said they wanted to sign me for World Cup cover, which is what was on the table at Toulouse.
“The call was from Mike Prendergast, and he was really keen to work with me. He’s Irish, and as I can’t speak any French yet it will be really useful to have him there.
“My aim is to learn French as quickly and as well as I can, and I’m really keen that Hugo (his young son) has the opportunity to learn it, too, but right now it will be great to have Mike to talk to as he’s an English speaker and an ex-scrum-half as well, so he’s got a very clear idea of what he wants from me.
“Toulouse is obviously an incredible club, but with a four-and-a-half month contract, to settle in as quickly as possible where there are few English-speaking people would have been tough.
“So I decided that Paris might be the better option for me, not just for the next few months but also as a longer-term possibility.”
Hidalgo-Clyne felt he had run out of road at the Scarlets, with Gareth Davies, Kieran Hardy and Jonathan Evans potentially in front of him, and Dane Blacker joining the squad.
It had reached the point where he had told Scotland coach Gregor Townsend he would have had to turn down a place in Scotland’s World Cup training squad, as training with the national team this summer would have hindered his chances of finding a new club.
Evidently, what the former rising star of Scottish rugby didn’t want to do was start next season as bench fodder in Llanelli.
“I said to Gregor, from my experiences from the 2015 World Cup, if I'd got picked as fourth-choice scrum-half, I would have had to say no," he told BBC Scotland.
"It would have meant I'd have been at Scarlets for another year, not knowing where I would have been in the pecking order, and I probably wouldn't have made the final squad for the World Cup.
"As much as I would have loved to be in training (with Scotland), a World Cup cover contract where I can get some game time for a top-quality side would actually be more beneficial for my rugby than training, being fourth-choice and potentially being back in Wales.”
At Racing, the 12-cap Hidalgo-Clyne will potentially provide cover for Maxime Machenaud, who is set to be at the World Cup with France.
