Toulon Owner Lashes Out At “Dishonest” Rhys Webb & Makes Huge Statement
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Not happy.
Wales international scrum-half Rhys Webb has played his final game for French club Toulon as far as owner Bernard Lemaitre is concerned.
The scrum-half will rejoin Ospreys next season after Toulon agreed last week to release him from his three-year contract with the Top 14 side a year early for family reasons.
A few days later the Welsh Rugby Union announced that will grant him a special dispensation that allows him to be selected by Wayne Pivac for Wales at the Six Nations next month and it appears this has not gone down well with his current club.
Lemaitre has blasted Webb’s “dishonest” attitude, revealing that they were unaware of his move to Ospreys and his negotiations with the Welsh Rugby Union regarding his eligibility.
“His family returned to Wales, it’s difficult for him to live,” Lemaitre said
“We made beach-sized amounts of time for him to go back to Wales and see them. We arrive at a situation where at the end we liberate Rhys of his final year of his contract, which is of the 2020-21 season.
“All of a sudden we learn he has already signed for his former club Ospreys and his agent had already negotiated with the Welsh union that he can be selected by Wales. It’s a dishonest attitude.
“It takes us to a situation that means I don’t think Rhys will play for us for the rest of the season. The adventure will be cut short.”
What this means for Webb remains to be seen. Toulon may release him and allow him to join Ospreys early or just decide to completely exile him for the remainder of the season and stare him of any minutes.