Toulon sign Wallabies’ Matt Giteau – Rugby news
Brumbies and Wallabies backbone player Matt Giteau will be joining Toulon, the French Top 14 club.
He signed a two-year contract, which means he will be available till the 2013 season. Giteau will be joining in Toulon this year, but after the world cup.
Giteau is the first Wallaby player to accept an offer from an international club. Five different Wallabies players have already turned down the lucrative French offers, due to the upcoming Rugby World Cup and their commitments to the national side.
He is challenging the earlier qualms of a mass departure subsequent to this year’s venture in New Zealand. Giteau will be joining in the English legend Jonny Wilkinson in the French club. But Giteau might have to spend some time on the benches or inside
centre in the presence of English fly half. Similar is the case for him in Wallabies, where first fly half option is always Quade Cooper, while Giteau takes on as inside centre.
Matthew Giteau is an Australian rugby union player, who plays as a fly half as a preferred position. He also comes in handy at positions like inside centre and halfback. Wallaby’s professional rugby player made his international debut in 2002 at Twickenham
against England. Since then he has earned 89 caps and scored 666 points for his national side.
The 28 year old utility back became a professional rugby player in 2002, when he joined Brumbies. He played for the club till 2006 and made a move to Force, where he continued till 2009. He rejoined Brumbies in 2010 an since then is a playmaker for the club.
He has earned 89 club caps out of which 52 are for Brumbies. He has scored 537 points in Super Rugby so far, from which 296 are for Force, where he played as a starting line-up fly half all the time. Giteau has been named as the world’s top five players in
2004. He comes from a family of rugby players, as his father Ron Giteau was a rugby league player, Kristy his sibling is rugby union player for Australian women’s international. Giteau’s wife is a professional netball player in Adelaide Thunderbirds.
Toulon has also signed Felipe Contepomi Argentinean national and Gavin Henson recently. Toulon is looking forward to gather a sea of midfield talent, which they can boast about in the coming season. Giteau’s contract with Australian rugby union demands his
commitment until 31st December, but he will be allowed to depart a bit early to move to France in Toulon shortly after World Cup. He is supposed to play all of the upcoming season and the final stage of the 2011-12 seasons. According to the deal, he will be
available for an important series in 2013, when British and Irish Lions will tour Australia for a fierce challenge.
The five players who opted not to move overseas and stay intact with their national prides are Drew Mitchell, Adam Ashley Cooper, Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander and Berrick Barnes. All these players have renewed their contracts with Wallabies till 2013 British
and Irish Lions’ tour. This clearly indicates the importance of the tournament and the radical approach of Wallabies towards it.
Momentarily the pressing focal point of Giteau is his Super Rugby side Brumbies and the current season. He is captaining his home club through this season, while Stephen Hoiles the regular skipper is absent due to injury. Brumbies will play against Chiefs
in the tournament opening match this Saturday.
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