{"id":803905,"date":"2026-10-16T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803905\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T00:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:00:09","slug":"england-exit-25-cap-international-commits-future-to-france-until-2029","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/803905\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;England exit&#8221; \u2013 25-cap international commits future to France until 2029"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>England international Lewis Ludlam has committed his future to French rugby after signing a new contract with Toulon until 2029.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old back-row forward, who has won 25 caps for England, has agreed a two-year extension with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/top-14\" title=\"Top 14\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TOP 14<\/a> club.<\/p>\n<p>His decision means he is set to remain unavailable for England under the RFU&#8217;s current overseas selection rules.<\/p>\n<p>It also casts further doubt over his chances of representing Steve Borthwick&#8217;s side at the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Ludlam commits to Toulon<\/p>\n<p>Ludlam joined Toulon from Northampton Saints in 2024 and has since made 53 appearances for the French giants.<\/p>\n<p>The former Saints captain has become an important figure at the Stade Mayol and is among Toulon&#8217;s captains this season.<\/p>\n<p>According to French newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lequipe.fr\/Rugby\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">L&#8217;\u00c9quipe<\/a>, Ludlam has extended his contract by two years.<\/p>\n<p>The forward said he felt at home in Toulon and wants to win trophies with the club.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>England future<\/p>\n<p>Ludlam last represented England at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>His new agreement will keep him in France beyond the next tournament, when he will be 31.<\/p>\n<p>Unless England relax their overseas selection policy, his international career looks set to remain on hold.<\/p>\n<p>England XV Selector<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England international Lewis Ludlam has committed his future to French rugby after signing a new contract with Toulon&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[256414,256894,5903,118921,101,18093,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-803905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-england-rugby-news","tag-northampton-saints-rugby-news","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-news","tag-sports","tag-top-14","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803905","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=803905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}