{"id":814305,"date":"2026-07-21T12:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814305\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T12:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:05:09","slug":"rugby-transfers-england-back-makes-decision-on-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/814305\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby Transfers: England back makes decision on future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portugal ace Nicolas Martins will swap ProD2 for the Top 14 next season, while England<\/a> and Sale Sharks full-back Joe Carpenter has made a crucial call on his future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are all the latest rugby rumours, transfers<\/a> and contract renewals.<\/p>\n

Nicolas Martins lands Top 14 move<\/p>\n

Portugal and Colomiers forward Nicolas Martins will swap ProD2 for life in the Top 14 next season, after signing a deal with Racing 92.<\/p>\n

The versatile back-rower\u2019s move to Paris comes just a year after joining Colomiers from Montpellier, making 11 appearances for the club in that time.<\/p>\n

Martins also becomes the eighth fresh face to join Racing 92 ahead of the 2026\/27 season, following the likes of Seru Uru, Benjamin Boudou, Maxime Machenaud and Josaia Ralulu to the club.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old began his career with Soyaux-Angoul\u00eame in ProD2, and made 38 appearances for them before his switch to Montpellier.<\/p>\n

Martins would spend just one season in Montpellier, though, making six appearances before heading to Colomiers.<\/p>\n

In that time, though, he became a crucial member of the Portugal squad, after making his debut against Georgia in 2022. His form for Los Lobos also saw him drafted into their 2023 World Cup<\/a> squad, starting all four pool stage Tests and scoring a try along the way.<\/p>\n

Joe Carpenter makes call on Sale Sharks future<\/p>\n

England full-back Joe Carpenter will remain at Sale Sharks<\/a> for the foreseeable future, after signing a two-year deal with the PREM outfit.<\/p>\n

Carpenter joined the North West side Yorkshire Carnegie\u2019s academy back in 2020, and has made 86 appearances at the time of writing. In that time, he has also helped them reach a PREM final.<\/p>\n

His form for the Sharks also saw him drafted into the senior England squad, making his Test debut against the USA last year as well as featuring twice for England A.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Commenting on his decision to re-sign with Sale, Carpenter said: \u201cI\u2019m absolutely buzzing to be committing my future to this club. It\u2019s a club and a group that I cherish in so many different ways and one that I truly believe will achieve something special in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed my years at Sale so much and it\u2019s been brilliant to have been a part of a team that has reached semi-finals and finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we haven\u2019t quite got the job done and now I\u2019m so pleased to be extended for two more years to help make more special memories and win competitions and trophies for Sale Sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharks director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, added: \u201cCarps is still young but he has become one of the core, senior members of the squad and a lot of how we want to play and the way our game will evolve, revolves around his X-factor abilities to beat the first man and dominate in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been involved with England over the past couple of seasons and he really wants to make the next World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows to do that he has to out in big performances for us, and he\u2019s come in for this pre-season and got a world-class bronco result. That shows intent for how he wants to improve going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the field, Carps has always been a big voice in the changing room and one of the first to put the music on. But he\u2019s maturing into a fantastic leader and a mentor through the experience he has.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been an energy giver but he\u2019s developing into a real game director as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portugal ace Nicolas Martins will swap ProD2 for the Top 14 next season, while England and Sale Sharks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,1379,818,44,20248,760,176848,85,68429],"class_list":["post-814305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-sale-sharks","tag-sports","tag-top-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}