Northampton hope their Wales and Lions wing George North will be available for the Premiership play-offs as he follows a return to play protocol having suffered three concussions this season.
The Saints, who are bidding to retain the Premiership title, will secure a home draw in the play-offs with victory over London Welsh at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday. That would leave the club’s director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, with the option of resting players for the final match of the regular season, even though it is against Leicester at Welford Road.
North, who suffered concussion appearing for Wales in November and February, has not played since the end of March when he was accidentally kneed in the head by the Wasps No8 Nathan Hughes after scoring a try. He saw a neurosurgeon who recommended a month’s rest before further assessment.
“George is continuing to improve and is making good progress,” said the Northampton attack coach Alex King. “The specialist is happy with how things are going and we hope that George will be involved again this season.”
The decision on when North returns to the field will be a medical one taken under the concussion guidelines. Wales are in regular contact with Northampton and should have one of their key players involved when they go into summer camp to start preparing for the World Cup.
Nick Abendanon, meanwhile, may have been named the European player of the year in his first season at Clermont Auvergne after joining for Bath, but he cannot dream about playing in the World Cup because England have a policy of only selecting players who are not based in the Premiership under exceptional circumstances.
“If I did get an opportunity to have another crack at playing for England I would be hugely honoured,” he said. “It’s a dream of every rugby player to play for their country and even though I am in France that hasn’t changed one bit. I have not had any contact from England, but the fact that I am the third Englishman at a Top 14 club in succession to win the award is testament to the French game. You come up against the world’s best players and that can only improve you.”
It has not improved the French national side who have finished in the bottom half of the Six Nations since the last World Cup. The French Rugby Federation has drawn up a shortlist of eight candidates for the position of head coach currently held by Philippe Saint-André whose contract runs out after the World Cup.
The FFR has said that no names will be divulged at the request of some of the eight. The Toulouse head coach Guy Noves, a long-time critic of the national set-up, has emerged as the favourite ahead of Raphaël Ibañez while the 2007 South Africa World Cup winning coach Jake White, who is in charge of Montpellier and tends to be linked with every vacancy at a tier one nation, is regarded as a contender.
Ibañez is another and one of his former clubs, Wasps, have hit their target of raising £35m through the first retail bond issued by a sports club. The offer was over-subscribed and the money will be used to help the club, who moved to Coventry at the end of last year, compete with the leading sides in Europe.
Wasps were one of eight Premiership clubs to make a loss last season and part of the money raised will be used to clear debts. “We are delighted at the success of the bond and the response from investors, institutional and private, has been very positive,” said David Armstrong, their group chief executive. “The funds raised will enable us to restructure our balance sheet and pay down our existing debt. We now have a solid foundation for the long-term future.”