Report: Two Top 14 join the race for Semi Radradra services
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Fijian international Semi Radradra looks set to depart Bristol Bears at the end of the season and two Top 14 have reportedly expressed their interest in the Bristol Bears centre.
The 29-year-old is one of Bristol's two marquee signings whose salary falls outside the £5m cap but is expected to leave the Club at the end of the season due to a salary cap issue.
Reports state that Bristol may need a ‘fire sale’ of players to be within the permitted budget next season after missing a deadline which meant a number of players’ contract renewals were triggered automatically when the club had intended to release them at the end of the year.
The number of marquee players permitted to each Club next season is set to drop from two to one with Bristol likely to lose both Semi Radradra and Charles Piutau.
Radradra is under contract at the Bears for at least another season, meaning if he were to leave early he would need to be bought out of his contract or leave the club by mutual agreement.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Semi Radradra comes off the bench to score for Bristol 🔥 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HeinekenChampionsCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HeinekenChampionsCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/34tS5a0eMm">pic.twitter.com/34tS5a0eMm</a></p>— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) <a href="https://twitter.com/ultimaterugby/status/1512788949441425414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Semi Radradra comes off the bench to score for Bristol 🔥 #HeinekenChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/34tS5a0eMm
— Ultimate Rugby (@ultimaterugby) April 9, 2022
According to The Rugby Paper, Toulon are the latest club to express their interest in Radradra's services after reporting last week that Bordeaux had done so too.
The Fijian joined Toulon in 2017 making the move from rugby league side the Parramatta Eels. He made 24 appearances for Toulon in his only season at the club before switching to Bordeaux in 2018.
He managed 34 appearances over two seasons with Bordeaux before making the move to Bristol with his two former employers now interested in re-adding the Fijian to their payroll.
Toulon have been in the market for a world-class centre this season and have turned their interests to Radradra after Jonathan Joseph opted to re-sign with Bath instead of making the move to France.
The report by the Rugby Paper adds that Radradra has also drawn interest from Japanese clubs.
