Fissler Confidential: Wales captain Dewi Lake at forefront of transfer scramble

The starting gun has been sounded for players in the last year of their contracts to begin discussing potential moves with clubs when their contracts expire in June 2026.

One player, according to Midi Olympique, whose CV is doing the rounds in the Top 14 and the Premiership, is Wales hooker Dewi Lake, who has made 67 appearances for the Ospreys since joining in 2017.

Lake, 26, who has won 23 caps and is two short of the 25 needed to play outside Wales and still be eligible for international selection, signed a new deal with the Ospreys at the start of this year.

Newcastle Knights superstar Kalyn Ponga is set to have showdown talks with the NRL outfit in a bid to secure himself a lucrative cross-code switch despite having two years left to run on his contract.

The former North Queensland Cowboys full-back, who earns A$1.4 million a season (£680,000), doesn’t want to waste the prime years of his career with the underperforming Knights.

It is understood that his details are being circulated to clubs in France or Japan, while the R360 is also a possible destination for Ponga, who does qualify for the All Blacks but seems unlikely to move across the Tasman Sea.

Junior Springbok ace Hassiem Pead has been the star of the U20 World Cup and is in line for the prestigious World Rugby Junior Player of the Year award, according to many observers, after sending records tumbling in Italy.

He has smashed Antoine Dupont’s record for most metres gained by a scrum half and is starting to attract serious interest from rival United Rugby Championship sides in South Africa.

Pead, 20, who plays for the Golden Lions, is yet to make his senior debut for the Johannesburg outfit, and it is understood that he has plenty of admirers within the Stormers organisation.

Wallaby scrum-half Issak Fines-Leleiwasa is the latest big name to leave the Western Force and is joining the Fijian Drua ahead of the next Super Rugby Pacific.

Fines-Leleiwasa, 29, who played for the Brumbies in the middle of two stints with the Western Force and joins former Leicester Tigers star Harry Potter, who is moving to the Waratahs, in quitting the Perth-based outfit.

The Sydney-born ace, who has Fijian heritage, was a surprise inclusion in Eddie Jones’ 2023 World Cup squad has won three Wallabies caps and will become the sixth player to join Drua and will be the fifth scrum-half on their books.

Lions legend Mike Gibson, who went on five tours between 1966 and 1977, will miss the first test in Brisbane tomorrow morning because of his love of golf.

Gibson, 82, who played centre for the North of Ireland, Cambridge University and London Irish, won 69 caps for Ireland, won’t be anywhere near a television because he is marshalling at the 13th hole at the Open in Portrush.

Joint third on the all-time list of Lions appearance holders with 12 caps, with Graham Price and Alun Wyn Jones, told The Daily Telegraph: “I’m on duty on Saturday from 9 am until 2.30 pm!”

George Illawarra second-row Jaydn Su’A is the latest NRL big name to be linked with a cross-code switch, hot on the heels of his former Anglican Church Grammar School team-mate Kalyn Ponga.

Queensland State of Origin star Su’A, 27, who was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, is under contract at the Dragons until 2027, but he has the option of another year in his favour.

Su’A is reported Down Under to be a target for the Mike Tindall-backed R360, who are said to have several big-name NRL players on their shopping list and could pose a serious threat in terms of potential spending power.

Kirill Fraindt, who is seen as one of the best rugby prospects to have come out of Russia, has signed a two-year deal to move to Top 14 giants La Rochelle.

Fraindt, 19, who can play both lock and flanker, is a product of Enisei-STM and a Russian under-20 international.

Fraindt, who trained at the SAS Rugby Academy in South Africa last year, was the target for several Top 14 clubs, but Ronan O’Gara’s side were successful in the race to sign him up.

Bryan Easson, the longest-serving coach of Scotland’s women’s team, has delivered a blow after announcing that he is standing down after the World Cup, which starts at the end of next month.

Easson, who replaced Phillip Doyle as Scotland head coach on an interim basis in August 2020, before being appointed on a full-time basis in January 2021, is to depart for a new job in England.

He had served as Scotland’s backs coach before his promotion to the top job has spent 25 years working in different roles at the SRU, and joins Matt Banahan, who has already left for Hartpury, in moving on.

Former Worcester Warriors and Munster lock Darren O’Shea has announced that he is hanging up his boots after struggling with injuries for much of last season.

O’Shea, 32, only played seven times for Pro D2 outfit Valence-Romans, and his last appearance came against Nevers in November and now says he is being forced to take early retirement for medical reasons.

He moved to France in 2020 to join Vannes and came off the bench when they beat Grenoble in the Pro D2 final to claim a first-ever promotion to the Top 14 in his last game before joining Valence-Romans.

Former WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu, who is fighting for the WBC strap in Las Vegas this weekend, was unimpressed with former All Black Sonny Bill Williams’ latest fight.

Tszyu, who is fighting on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao-Mario Barrios, didn’t hold back when he was asked about former NRL star Paul Gallen’s split decision win over Williams in Sydney.

Taking aim at the likes of Williams, who has lost his last two fights after nine successive victories, he said: “There is no need for the rugby players in the sport,” ahead of his rematch with Sebastian Fundora.