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http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23715274-5001023,00.html
TEST centre Mark Gasnier has a fortnight to find a French rugby union club, accept a $1.8million offer from French rugby league team Les Catalans or remain in the NRL.
The St George Illawarra captain has been shopped around to French rugby clubs for the past month with a view to switching codes at the end of this season.
Since The Sunday Telegraph exclusively revealed Gasnier was exploring the prospect of relocating to France, Les Catalans have tabled a three-year, $1.8m deal.
The French agent who brokered Craig Gower's $2.4m switch to rugby, Pierre Vandome, has also confirmed three French rugby clubs are interested in Gasnier. "It looks as though a few of the rugby union clubs are interested in Mark Gasnier,'' Vandome said. "I just finished a meeting with the president of Les Catalans and they have tabled a big three-year offer.
"It's not a secret anymore, there is a window for us to find something for Mark. "Everyone is excited because, of course, Mark is the best player in the world, but we only have a very short time to do something now.
"The first official offer is from Catalans Dragons rugby league. It would be good for Mark if he can stay in rugby league. He can play in the World Cup, everyone is happy and then he is in France, a beautiful country with a Mediterranean-style life.
"We don't have official offers from rugby yet, but there is speculation about wanting to talk from Bayonne, Stade Francais and Mountauban.''
Bayonne, Gower's French rugby team, has an average crowd of just 2000.
But living a 10-minute drive from famous surf break Biarritz in the picturesque south-western pocket of France is attractive. Outgoing NSW Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie is in advanced negotiations with Paris-based club Stade Francais for next season. Should McKenzie sign a two-year deal, the Waratahs coach has reaffirmed his interest in Gasnier. "I haven't had any contact with him or anything like that, but my interest in Mark Gasnier is pretty well documented,'' McKenzie said. "We went pretty hard at him from a NSW perspective and obviously lost out to St George. He'd have a fair bit of potential in the game. "From a theoretical point of view, he remains a player of interest from my perspective. It's fully professional over there, there's a lot of internationals playing in that competition and it's a long calendar because they play 30 games a year.''
TEST centre Mark Gasnier has a fortnight to find a French rugby union club, accept a $1.8million offer from French rugby league team Les Catalans or remain in the NRL.
The St George Illawarra captain has been shopped around to French rugby clubs for the past month with a view to switching codes at the end of this season.
Since The Sunday Telegraph exclusively revealed Gasnier was exploring the prospect of relocating to France, Les Catalans have tabled a three-year, $1.8m deal.
The French agent who brokered Craig Gower's $2.4m switch to rugby, Pierre Vandome, has also confirmed three French rugby clubs are interested in Gasnier. "It looks as though a few of the rugby union clubs are interested in Mark Gasnier,'' Vandome said. "I just finished a meeting with the president of Les Catalans and they have tabled a big three-year offer.
"It's not a secret anymore, there is a window for us to find something for Mark. "Everyone is excited because, of course, Mark is the best player in the world, but we only have a very short time to do something now.
"The first official offer is from Catalans Dragons rugby league. It would be good for Mark if he can stay in rugby league. He can play in the World Cup, everyone is happy and then he is in France, a beautiful country with a Mediterranean-style life.
"We don't have official offers from rugby yet, but there is speculation about wanting to talk from Bayonne, Stade Francais and Mountauban.''
Bayonne, Gower's French rugby team, has an average crowd of just 2000.
But living a 10-minute drive from famous surf break Biarritz in the picturesque south-western pocket of France is attractive. Outgoing NSW Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie is in advanced negotiations with Paris-based club Stade Francais for next season. Should McKenzie sign a two-year deal, the Waratahs coach has reaffirmed his interest in Gasnier. "I haven't had any contact with him or anything like that, but my interest in Mark Gasnier is pretty well documented,'' McKenzie said. "We went pretty hard at him from a NSW perspective and obviously lost out to St George. He'd have a fair bit of potential in the game. "From a theoretical point of view, he remains a player of interest from my perspective. It's fully professional over there, there's a lot of internationals playing in that competition and it's a long calendar because they play 30 games a year.''
