It is a badly-kept secret that some players have made a point of being spotted at French clubs in an attempt to boost their wages. Brian O’Driscoll is on record as saying he made sure he was seen at a Biarritz match with the club president when he had no intention of joining, but it had the desired effect when it came to his next Leinster deal. For Manu Tuilagi though, the dilemma was genuine, he was really close to joining Racing so I’m just thrilled he is staying at Leicester.
I was in a similar position nine years ago. I had an offer from Racing that would have made me the highest-paid wing in the world at that time, and it is so easy to be seduced by the money. I was matter of fact about it and I wrote down a list of the top-10 things that were important to me and ultimately there were more draws to staying at home than to go away.
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