Paul O'Connell has been identified as the latest addition to Toulon's list of galacticos and to that end has been targeted as a signing for next season by the club's multi-millionaire president Mourad Boudjellal.
The 101-times Irish capped lock has been interesting a number of Top 14 clubs, with newly promoted Pau (where former Munster assistant coach Simon Mannix has been joined by James Coughlan) and Grenoble (where former Munster scrum-half Mike Prendergast is assistant to Bernard Jackman) amongst his suitors, but according to French sources Toulon have emerged at the head of the posse, with Boudjellal putting together a two-year contract for O'Connell.
Boudjellal and Bernard Laporte, who will still be acting in an advisory capacity next season after stepping down as head coach at the end of this season, have identified O'Connell as the kind of iconic rugby figure best suited to replacing Jonny Wilkinson in that role.
Although O'Connell is 35, age has rarely been a barrier to Toulon, whose six southern hemisphere forwards in the pack that started their European Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster had an average age of 34.
Set to leave
Their two locks, Bakkies Botha and Ali Williams, are set to leave at the end of the season.
O'Connell himself has not spoken to any of his prospective French suitors, and he has repeatedly wondered aloud as to whether he will retire at the end of the World Cup or see out the last year of his contract with Munster and Ireland until the end of next season. It would therefore seem highly unlikely that he will finish his career in France.
Admittedly, a change in the tax relief law for Irish sportspeople over the 10 most remunerative years does not oblige them to finish their careers in Ireland. The Irish and former Lions captain is in his 14th season with his native province, and while there is a precedent for them releasing a player with a year left on his contract to facilitate an end-of-career sojourn in France (as with Coughlan), it’s hard to envisage a similar scenario in this case.
Amongst the crowd on Sunday as a guest of Toulon was Quade Cooper, who is set to join the reigning European and French champions next season, along with Ma’a Nonu, Clermont winger Napolioni Nalaga, Springbok and Stormers number eight Duane Vermeulen and Northampton number eight Samu Manoa.
