Jean-Luc du Preez: Sale Sharks back-rower to leave at end of season
Sale Sharks have confirmed that back-rower Jean-Luc du Preez is to leave at the end of the season to "pursue an opportunity abroad".
The 29-year-old South Africa international joined the Premiership side, where older brother Robert already played, on a permanent deal in July 2019 alongside his twin Dan.
He has made 20 appearances in all competitions this season for the Sharks, who are third in the table with three games to play.
Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson previously told TNT Sport that the player would be joining French side Bordeaux.
"Sale is a special place. A place where I am excited to go in and see the boys every day. A place that has given me and my family so much and most importantly, a place I now call home," Du Preez told the club website., external
"I will genuinely miss the club and the people that have helped me grow on and off the field, I am grateful to everyone."
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The Guardian
9 hours ago
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I don't think the transition will be as jarring as we first thought.' Does he have concerns about the future of Test cricket – the format he loves most? 'Yes and no. In Australia, no. Each summer it seems to get stronger and stronger. The ticket sales for the Ashes are just berserk the last week. But that's not the reality for many Test-playing nations and one of the beauties about Test cricket is playing in totally different conditions with different challenges. I'd hate Test cricket to turn into only a couple of nations.' In 25 years will Australia and England still be playing Tests against Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa? 'It's really hard to say. I hope so. But if we just let things play out, probably not. There needs to be some intervention and finding a way – maybe its dedicated windows for franchise cricket. I really hope so because they are cricket-loving nations as well. They're always going to have good players and [offer] a tough challenge.' 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BBC News
9 hours ago
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R360 rebel circuit is flawed
Premiership Rugby bosses say that a proposed rebel breakaway rugby circuit targeting some of the league's top stars is fundamentally flawed, and would wreck the pathway producing new talent.R360, which has been fronted by former England centre Mike Tindall, plans to launch next year, promising bumper contracts, a globe-trotting itinerary and new revenue Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor says he has had no contact with its organisers and doubts their ambitions can be realised."The R360 thing is a distraction, sure, but it's not grounded in the same amount of work and detail that we've been doing," he said. "It's not a threat per se, but we have no idea how it could ever work full stop - definitely not for the club game in England, in France, the United Rugby Championship, in the southern hemisphere."R360 plans to run in two blocks - from April to June and August to September. Its organisers hope its schedule might co-exist with the men's international rugby calendar in the northern hemisphere, however it would put it on a collision course with domestic rugby in are contractually obliged to pick players from Premiership clubs, meaning any R360 recruits would immediately risk their Test new event may not be sanctioned by the game's governing bodies and would require significant investment to lure players, hire venues and market itself to the new Nations Cup tournament beginning in 2026, a first Club World Cup cleared for launch in 2028 and new, deeper agreements between the existing club and international game, Massie-Taylor believes the start-up competition risks the gains of recent years."Rugby needs roots, it doesn't need pop-ups," he added."There's an international game, there's a club game that relies on it, and there's a community game."The whole thing's linked and the community game's inspired by both. Funding comes down to help the community game and that sometimes is an inhibitor to growth because you have to find a solution that compromises all these types of things."But without those roots it's very difficult to understand how a system could ever work." Premiership Rugby says it has recorded 30% growth among fans aged 18-34, while this Saturday's Premiership final between Bath and Leicester has sold out in record is one of 30 matches to have sold out this season, up from 18 in 2023-24 and 13 in TNT Sports have reported 10% growth in audiences for the Premiership this season, and recorded their biggest Friday night rugby audience ever for Bath's semi-final win over boss Andrew Georgiou was more blunt about R360's claims that they can tap into unrealised audiences and income."If these folks believe that they are going to grow the revenue by putting this thing on, I think they're delusional," he said. "I really do."What it will do is further complicate what is already a well-functioning rugby ecosystem."I would just ask some pretty fundamental questions around is this a commercially sustainable model?"The fact that it's being likened to LIV Golf, I think is a perfect analogy. It's commercially unsustainable." 'Big game' concept could go overseas Following in the footsteps of Harlequins' well-established 'Big Game' concept, Bristol played their home game against West Country rivals Bath at Cardiff's Principality Stadium last month, drawing more than 51,000 to the Welsh club is considering the possibility of shifting a regular-season home game to a bigger stage for the 2025-26 season, with Massie-Taylor saying the league might test the waters across the Atlantic in the run-up to the Rugby World Cup in the United States in staged a home game against Saracens in Philadelphia in 2017, but the fixture fell well short of the hoped-for sellout, with the 18,500-capacity Talen Energy Stadium less than a third who were also the 'away' team for London Irish's more successful St Patrick's Day fixture in New Jersey in 2016, have shown interest in taking a game stateside previously, with then chief executive Mark Thompson saying in September they would "certainly" consider it, external if the circumstances were 2025-26 Premiership season will begin on a Thursday evening, with the opening round reconfigured to avoid any clash with the Women's Rugby World Cup Red Roses are hot favourites to advance to Saturday, 27 September's showpiece at Twickenham's Allianz first matches of the season will be spread across Thursday 25, Friday 26 and Sunday, 28 September, with a number of clubs interested in testing out the timeslot on Thursday year's Six Nations will also begin on a Thursday evening, with French broadcasters keen to maximise audiences and avoid a clash with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics the following day.
