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https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/fissler-extra-lowes-leinster-future-up-in-the-air-tigers-in-lock-search\/ <\/p>\nmens<\/p>\n
united-rugby-championship<\/p>\n
James Lowe during Leinster Rugby squad training at UCD in Dublin. (Photo By Sam Barnes\/Sportsfile via Getty Images) https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/fissler-extra-lowes-leinster-future-up-in-the-air-tigers-in-lock-search\/ <\/p>\n
Ireland<\/a> and Lions<\/a> winger James Lowe<\/a> could be nearing the end of his Leinster<\/a> career as he approaches the final months of his contract.<\/p>\n The 33-year-old\u2019s CV is floating around clubs in France<\/a> and England<\/a> and demand is likely to be high after he returned to form in Ireland\u2019s win over England a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n Lowe, a member of Ireland\u2019s 2023 Grand Slam-winning squad, has made 99 appearances for the province and has scored 68 tries and touched down 17 times in 45 games for his adopted country.<\/p>\n The winner of five United Rugby Championship<\/a> titles and a Champions Cup is on a Leinster contract topped up by the IRFU under the Player of National Interest scheme.<\/p>\n Leicester<\/a> Tigers are scrambling around trying to sign a replacement lock in time for their Champions Cup trip to face Bordeaux<\/a> at the Stade Chaban-Delmas early next month.<\/p>\n Geoff Parling has been without George Martin<\/a>, who has been out of action for over a year with a shoulder injury, and Cameron Henderson<\/a> hasn\u2019t played since the win over Harlequins<\/a> at the end of January.<\/p>\n The Tigers have been assessing who is available for an immediate move to Welford Road and are trying to get someone in before Bristol<\/a> Bears visit in three weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n Sale Sharks<\/a> are in advanced talks with Griquas<\/a> skipper tight-head Cebo Dlamini<\/a> about a move to the North-West later this year after watching him closely after he moved to the Dragons in December.<\/p>\n Dlamini, 24, who also played for the Sharks in the United Rugby Championship<\/a> and the Champions Cup this season, made six appearances off the bench for the Dragons and started a Challenge Cup<\/a> game.<\/p>\n He led the Griquas to their first Currie Cup<\/a> title in 55 years and is now recovering from a foot operation, while his Kimberley franchise team-mate, winger Gurshwin Wehr, scored one try in six appearances for the Sharks this season.<\/p>\n Veteran former France scrum-half Maxime Machenaud<\/a>, who will be 38 later this year, is returning to his former club Racing 92<\/a> after signing a one-year contract, banishing fears that his career could be over.<\/p>\n Machenaud, who has made four appearances for Bayonne<\/a> this season but hasn\u2019t played since October, spent nine seasons at Racing, playing 218 games before leaving for the Basque outfit in 2022.<\/p>\n Despite tearing an ACL attempting to tackle Pau\u2019s Argentina<\/a> international, Facundo Isa<\/a>, he vowed to return, saying, \u201cI\u2019m not at the end, not ready to turn the page, and not ready to quit,\u201d which he will now do with Racing.<\/p>\n Former All Black Carlos Spencer<\/a> has announced that he is leaving Terenure College at the end of the season to return to New Zealand<\/a> to be nearer to his family, who didn\u2019t travel to Ireland with him.<\/p>\n Spencer only became head coach of the AIL Division 1A side in the summer on a three-year deal, saying that it\u2019s the first time he had coached outside his homeland without his family being with him.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I was strong enough to do it alone, but with commuting at the right times, I wasn\u2019t. The pull from my family at home has been too strong,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n Lyon, who made Treviso\u2019s Puma loose-head Thomas Gallo<\/a> their first new signing ahead of next season, are understood to be in the market for three more players.<\/p>\n They are looking for two tight-head props, with one of them set to be 27-year-old Tongan Opeti Helu<\/a>, who is set to leave Japan<\/a> Rugby League One outfit Kubota Spears<\/a> when his contract runs out later this year.<\/p>\n Helu will replace Saracens-bound Jermaine Ainsley<\/a>, and they are looking at locks, too, after Killian Geraci<\/a>, who has won four French caps, announcing that he is joining Bayonne this summer.<\/p>\n Former Exeter Chiefs<\/a> and Glasgow<\/a> Warriors tight-head Enrique Pieretto Heiland is leaving United Rugby Championship strugglers when his contract runs out at the end of the season.<\/p>\n The Argentine international, who made one appearance at the 2019 World Cup, has made six appearances since his debut in January against his former employers, Glasgow.<\/p>\n The well-travelled Pieretto Heiland, who also counts the Jaguares, New South Wales Waratahs<\/a> and Provence among his former clubs, is returning to the Pro D2<\/a> after signing a two-year deal with Agen<\/a> until 2028.<\/p>\n Ireland boss Andy Farrell has thrown his support behind his former club, Wigan Warriors, playing a Super League game against Warrington Wolves in Dublin.<\/p>\n Both clubs have been in Dublin in the last few weeks to discuss taking a game across the Irish Sea to face off at the RDS Arena in 2027.<\/p>\n But they will have to wait for Leinster\u2019s United Rugby Championship and Champions Cup fixtures to be released later this year before locking in a date for the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"mens united-rugby-championship James Lowe during Leinster Rugby squad training at UCD in Dublin. 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