{"id":420551,"date":"2026-02-11T20:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/420551\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:58:09","slug":"welsh-club-close-in-on-deal-to-bring-wales-star-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/420551\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh club close in on deal to bring Wales star back home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cardiff are lining up a move for the Wales forward\"walesonline\"<\/p>\n

15:00, 11 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wales pair Dafydd Jenkins (left) and Christ Tshiunza (right) in action for Exeter Chiefs(Image: Chris Fairweather\/Huw Evans Agency)<\/p>\n

Cardiff are closing in on the signing of Wales forward Christ Tshiunza from Exeter Chiefs, WalesOnline has learnt.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old’s Exeter contract expires at the end of the season and there has been a lot of interest in acquiring his services from Cardiff and clubs in England.<\/p>\n

Tshiunza, who can play lock and backrow, has seen his Wales career stall in recent times due to injury and is currently sidelined with a broken foot.<\/p>\n

The 6ft 6in forward is a big target for Cardiff<\/a> and while a deal has not yet been completed WalesOnline understands the capital city club are the favourites to land his signature.<\/p>\n

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Tshiunza attended Whitchurch High School<\/a> in Cardiff, the same establishment as Sam Warburton and Gareth Bale, before deciding to join the Exeter Chiefs academy.<\/p>\n

A move back to Cardiff would put the athletic forward in a strong position to fight for a place in Wales’ Rugby World Cup<\/a> squad.<\/p>\n

Cardiff are currently up for sale with the WRU locked into a 60-day period of exclusivity with Ospreys<\/a> owners Y11 Sports & Media who are the governing bodies preferred buyer of the famous Welsh club.<\/p>\n

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Despite the WRU’s plan to cut down to three professional clubs there will be at least four Welsh sides competing in the United Rugby Championship next season.<\/p>\n

All four sides know roughly what their playing budgets are for next season and are contracting players.<\/p>\n

If Cardiff were to complete a deal to sign Tshiunza his athleticism and lineout prowess would suit the Arms Park outfit’s brand of rugby.<\/p>\n

Cardiff have also lost the versatile Ben Donnell who has signed for Ulster so Tshiunza would fit the bill as a replacement for him.<\/p>\n

A potential second-row partnership of Teddy Williams and Tshiunza would also be appealing, with former England international Josh McNally also in the mix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cardiff are lining up a move for the Wales forward 15:00, 11 Feb 2026 Wales pair Dafydd Jenkins…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[10579,79264,8934,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-420551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-cardiff-rugby","tag-christ-tshiunza","tag-premium","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}