REPORT: Bath set sights on Springbok Pollard
TRANSFER TALK: Bath reportedly are making a concerted bid to woo World Cup winner Handre Pollard into their fold!
The Springbok flyhalf has been playing for Montpelier since the end of last year but Bath in an outlandish bid are sounding out their chances of signing him, the Rugby Paper reported.
Montpellier in the meantime have been accused of breaking the £10.1m salary cap and have had to pay a fine of £2.6m to settle this dispute with the National Rugby League. There was even talk that owner, Mohed Altrad, might walk away from the club.
*READ: Montpellier’s rivals unhappy with salary cap punishment
In the wake of this Bath have taken the opportunity to sound out Pollard who earns around £675,000 as of course, it would surely assist Montpellier in lowering their salary cap although most rugby pundits feel this move has been doomed from the start.
Bath who have been searching for a quality flyhalf for a number of years now seem to have taken an interest in South Africans in order to take them forward and realize their dreams of challenging for top honours in the English Premiership again.
Should their bid to land Pollard fail they’ve already lined up fellow South African Johan Goosen as his replacement who incidentally has also played for Montpelier for the past few years.
The former Cheetahs star who can play flyhalf, centre or fullback was at the heart of the spat between Montpelier and the NRL when he moved back to the Top 14 from the Cheetahs.
Prior to signing with Montpellier Goosen had a two-year stint with Racing 92 after which he “retired” to work for an agricultural company under some dubious circumstances which have still not been forgotten by some in the Republic.
Bath seem to think that Montpellier could be ready to part company with Goosen who was capped 13 times for his country but hasn’t played on the international stage for four years. It seems he may very well be Bath’s real target and the interest in Pollard is simply bluster to coax Montpelier into releasing him.
Whichever it turns out to be this will no doubt be of interest to a lot of South Africans fans.
Source: TheRugbyPaper
