{"id":197461,"date":"2025-06-19T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197461\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T15:30:10","slug":"joe-marchant-to-exit-contract-to-make-early-return-to-english-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/197461\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Marchant to exit contract to make early return to English rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/sharks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sharks<\/a> have lined up a move to bring former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">England<\/a> outside centre <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/joe-marchant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joe Marchant<\/a> back to the Premiership, despite him having another year left on his contract with Stade Fran\u00e7ais, as part of a trio of moves.<\/p>\n<p>Winchester-born Marchant, 28, moved to Stade after the 2023 World Cup and made 26 appearances last season, scoring six tries as Paul Gustard\u2019s side avoided a relegation play-off by one place and one point.<\/p>\n<p>Stade have already lined up a replacement for Marchant, who made over 150 appearances for Quins, including starting their 2021 Premiership final win over Exeter Chiefs.<\/p>\n<p>They are set to replace him with former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/france\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">France<\/a> U20 international <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/tani-vili\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tani Vili<\/a>, who was unable to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/vannes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vannes<\/a> in the Top 14. He made 14 appearances and scored two tries after joining from Bordeaux.<\/p>\n<p>Vili, 24, a product of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/brive\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brive<\/a> academy before joining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/clermont\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clermont<\/a> Auvergne, is a ready-made replacement for Marchant, who would be able to kick-start his England career with a return to the Premiership.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Borthwick, who doesn\u2019t have many natural options at outside centre with the same muscle as Marchant \u2013 who was linked with a move to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/saracens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Saracens<\/a> 18 months ago \u2013 will be delighted at his return.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2020, Marchant was part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/harlequins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harlequins<\/a> side that lost to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/sale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sale<\/a> Sharks in the final of the Premiership Rugby Cup, which would solve a potential problem for Sharks boss Alex Sanderson.<\/p>\n<p>The Sharks are set to lose Rob du Preez, who, like Marchant, is entering the final year of his contract and is a target for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/racing-92\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Racing 92<\/a> after they sold former England captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/owen-farrell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Owen Farrell<\/a> to his old club Saracens.<\/p>\n<p>Du Preez was a regular for the Sharks at outside centre in the second half of last season, starting 15 times in the role following the win over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/leicester\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leicester<\/a> Tigers at the start of December. He only started three times at fly-half in that period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sale Sharks have lined up a move to bring former England outside centre Joe Marchant back to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-197461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114710749013061427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}