Cardiff Blues have admitted they face a battle to retain the services of Wales back-line duo Leigh Halfpenny and Alex Cuthbert after their recent Six Nations campaign.
It was recently revealed that the duo's Wales team-mate George North is negotiating with Northampton about a possible move from the Scarlets and Cardiff have confirmed that Halfpenny and Cuthbert are also attracting the attentions of some leading European clubs.
Cuthbert signed a one-year contract extension earlier this year, but, like Halfpenny and North, his deal expires at the end of next season.
Top 14 heavyweights Clermont are rumoured to be lining up a bid for Halfpenny when his current contract expires in 2014.
Cardiff Blues back-line coach Gareth Baber understands that Halfpenny and Cuthbert will attract attention from other clubs but has challenged his region to create a winning culture so that the duo will not leave Wales.
"They are going to be in demand after what they have achieved and there is no getting away from that fact," Baber told Walesonline.
"All we can do is create an environment in which they know they can develop and that is by giving them good quality coaching.
"We want to be competing in the semi-finals and finals of Europe and we have to be giving them that vision of our ambitions.
"If Leigh and Alex see that then they will want to be part of the Blues."
Baber has been involved with Halfpenny's development since his days at the Blues academy and is not surprised with his superb showings in the Six Nations which saw him equalling Neil Jenkins record of 74 points in a tournament.
"The consistency in Leigh's game over the last couple of months has been his major improvement," explained Baber.
"He has always been a driven and focused individual. It is no surprise to anyone at the Blues what he is producing at international level.
"I am not picking a Lions squad, but if you are in the Australian camp you would be thinking how you could break Halfpenny down.
"He is mentally and physically tough and there is more to come from him.
"People forget he is still a young man and things have happened very quickly for him."
Comments
99call says...
rugbydaft, melkdave
The WRU offered the regions central contracts for their main players but along with that obviously came a certain amount of control over what players do which is the same as we have in Ireland but the regions refused.
They wanted the WRU to pay the players but they would still have full control of how many games they play etc which smacks a little of having your cake and eating it
They will have to do something but there needs to be an agreement between the regions and the union for it to work and lets be honest theres more chance of Chris Ashton captaining the Lions than those two groups working together
Posted 09:16 21st March 2013
melkdave says...
@rugbydaft
Cant argue with your logic ,the WRU though has always been a penny pinching organisation,and has never really invested for rugby in Wales,or a proper player development programme.The lack of an A side still is really disgutting in this day and age .Once players reach club leval ,theres nothing else for them except the national team,and the step up from league to international leval is huge ,and few players can make it successfully..Its also a huge gamble by the management ,when blooding a new player,as theres no intermidary step on which to gauge said players or for them to gain experiance from..The WRU imo,is a very badly run orginisation,almost as bad as the ARU in the SH.Its credit to the clubs at all levals in Wales that they still produce good international players,though the depth of said players is very worrying to say the least.
Posted 23:38 20th March 2013
rugbydaft says...
WRU should have contracted the players as does the NZRFU and the Irish
Posted 13:39 20th March 2013