The Exiles coach says the flanker, whose try earned a bonus point at Bolton, has not completed his move to Toulon
The London Irish coach, Toby Booth, says that Steffon Armitage's move to Toulon is far from a done deal. "Steffon Armitage is in the middle of a three-year contract," said Booth, after the Exiles had beaten 34-20 Sale on Saturday evening. "There's no contract signed anywhere else, no compromise agreement, no anything. Steffon's got world-class attributes and we want him at the club." To prove Booth's point, Armitage's try in the final minute gave Irish the bonus point that kept them just a win shy of a top-four finish.
Having taken Saturday's game to the Reebok Stadium, the home of Bolton Wanderers, Sale attracted a crowd of 16,428, a lot less than was expected when they booked the stadium. That, however, was before half of Lancashire discovered they would be in London this weekend., his talks with Bath seemingly stalled. Elsewhere, Toulouse snatched victory in the dying minutes against Biarritz, a dress rehearsal for their Heineken Cup quarter-final.
Racing ahead in chase for Carter's signature
The might of the euro and the restrictions of a salary cap appear to be on the point of denying Bath their dream of signing Dan Carter. It seems that Bath's new owner, Bruce Craig, has been trumped by a three-year deal offered by another extremely rich backer, Jacky Lorenzetti, the man behind the rise of Racing M�tro to second in the Top 14.
Lorenzetti, whose money comes from selling France's largest estate agency, is apparently offering the 29-year-old close to �4m, which would make Carter easily the best-paid player in the world. Lorenzetti's stable already includes Juan-Martin Hern�ndez, Frans Steyn, S�bastien Chabal and Lionel Nallet. The deal would dwarf the �1m Newcastle paid for Carl Hayman and is sure to add to complaints from Leicester, Northampton, Bath and co about the �4.25m English salary cap.
Toulon keep on spending
Martin Johnson will no doubt be taking interest in matters at Toulon, where Paul Sackey scored twice as Jonny Wilkinson's side kept alive their hopes of making the French play-offs by beating the leaders, Toulouse, on Saturday. The Toulon owner, Mourad Boudjellal, took the match to Stade V�lodrome in Marseille and was rewarded with a full house of 50,000 and a win which kept Toulon within a point of sixth-placed Montpellier. Boudjellal is adding Matt Giteau and Bakkies Botha to his squad and even after the Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat by Perpignan the previous weekend he was upbeat. Asked if he would be signing more big names, Boudjellal smiled broadly and said: "Of course." Perhaps he might consider Mike Phillips for a vacancy at scrum-half, after suggestions that talks between the Ospreys and Wales No9 and Toulouse have stalled.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/18/london-irish-steffon-armitage-toulon
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