Wasps hope to follow up Danny Cipriani signing by making David Pocock rugby's highest paid player
Exclusive: Australian flanker is said to be open to a Premiership move when his contract with the Australian Rugby Union expires at the end of the year
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8:47PM GMT 16 Feb 2016
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Hot on the heels of landing fly half Danny Cipriani for next season, Wasps have made an audacious attempt to bring David Pocock to the Premiership in a potential deal that would make the Australia flanker the highest paid rugby player in the world.
Pocock, whose contract with the Australian Rugby Union expires at the end of the year, is expected to make a decision on his future in the next couple of weeks. The 27-year-old is considering taking a sabbatical from rugby to study at an overseas university but is understood to be open to the possibility of playing in England having thoroughly enjoyed his time in the country during the World Cup.
Wasps have already put feelers out to his representatives and have indicated that they would offer him a package in excess of the £1.4 million that Racing 92 are paying World Cup winning fly half Dan Carter. Pocock is seen as the perfect replacement for George Smith, who is leaving the club at the end of the season. The veteran Australian openside who has been a revelation this season and has even been brought in by Eddie Jones to advise England on the art of breakdown play.
Cipriani has just signed for Wasps
Pocock, though, is the preeminent turnover specialist in world rugby as England found to their high cost in their group-stage elimination by the Wallabies. Signing Pocock would send the clearest signal of intent that owner Derek Richardson intends to catapult Wasps into the elite band of European clubs.
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There is still a long way to go to make that a reality. Even the size of the figures involved may not be enough to tempt Pocock, who very much ploughs his own furrow as a committed campaigner on issues ranging from the environment to gay rights. However it is understood that Wasps stand a far better chance than the host of French clubs who have previously made similar offers. It would also only be a short-term deal as Pocock intends to play in the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Nevertheless, given that the club were on the verge of bankruptcy only a couple of seasons ago, it is remarkable how Wasps’ ambitions have shifted as fortunes have risen. The move to Coventry has been a resounding success with the Ricoh Arena attracting the third greatest attendances in English rugby. On the pitch, Dai Young’s team advanced to the European Champions Cup quarter-finals and this weekend thrashed champions Saracens 64-23 in the Premiership.
Pocock in action at the World Cup against Argentina
The feelgood factor has only been enhanced by the capture of Cipriani, their prodigal son, on Tuesday. Despite interest from Harlequins and Toulon, Cipriani opted to return to his boyhood club on a three-year deal worth an estimated £400,000 a year after enacting a break clause in his Sale contract.
Although Toulon offered a more lucrative package, a move to France would have ended the 28-year-old’s England ambitions which still burn brightly despite being third in line behind George Ford and Owen Farrell. The instability that surrounds Toulon was also a push factor while the lack of a permanent successor to Conor O’Shea as director of rugby at Harlequins proved costly in their pursuit of the prodigious stand-off.
Steve Diamond, the Sale director of rugby, was confident of persuading Cipriani to remain and although he is happy in Manchester, his ambitions were out of step with one of the lowest spenders in the Premiership. Hence, he will return to the club where he first made his name as a teenager in starting the 2007 Heineken Cup final before going on to make his England debut in 2008.
“I’m excited about returning to Wasps next season,” Cipriani said. “For me, it really does feel like coming home. In the professional era, players naturally move clubs more frequently than they used to, but I still feel such a strong connection with Wasps. It’s where I learned my trade, alongside incredible players like Lawrence Dallaglio, Joe Worsley, Alex King, Fraser Waters, Josh Lewsey and Paul Sackey.
“I have such good memories of that period in my life, I feel much more equipped to handle and deal with the expectation that comes when you put on the black and gold jersey. There’s something about Wasps which always draws you in. ‘Once a Wasp, always a Wasp’ is more than just a saying when you’ve been part of the club. I feel next season will be the right time for a new challenge, at a club which in my heart will always feel like a second home, where I know I will settle quickly.”
