French giants make contact in audacious bid to sign Wales and Lions star

Wales international Ross Moriarty is being courted by Top 14 outfit Stade Francais.

The Parisians — Heineken Cup runners-up in 2001 and 2005 and Challenge Cup winners in 2016 — have made contact with the teak-hard Dragons back-rower.

Stade have been active in the recruitment stakes with scrum-half Morgan Parra among a host of players joining for next season. Reports in the French press say they have Moriarty in their sights, as well, with the club undertaking a major rebuild as they head towards the end of a challenging campaign that has left them placed eleventh out of 14 in the French top flight.

So keen are they on the 6ft 2in, 16st 3lb Moriarty that they are said to be willing to buy him out of the remaining year he has left on his contract with the Dragons.

But there are major stumbling blocks to the move going through.

Quitting regional rugby at this point would leave the 54-cap Moriarty ineligible for Wales as he doesn’t have the 60 appearances he’d need to figure for his country as an exiled player. And despite the Dragons’ ongoing struggles, the 28-year-old has given no indication that he’s unhappy at the east Wales region. Indeed, he has captained them and was playing well prior to the nerve injury that has sidelined him since April 1. You can read about some good news for Moriarty here.

The assumption is, too, that he wouldn’t want to do anything that might jeopardise his place in the Wales set-up heading towards the next World Cup.

So it's odds-against the switch happening.

But French interest in him is unlikely to go away, with the 28-year-old much-admired in the Top 14 for his physicality and abrasive style of play, with Toulon, Montpellier and Lyon on his trail when he headed for free-agent status two