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Castres are set to sign Tyler Ardron for the 2020-21 Top 14 season, according to French publication RMC Sport. Canada’s captain at Rugby World Cup 2019 has been targeted as a replacement for Uruguay’s Rodrigo Capó Ortega, who will retire at the end of the current season.
Ardron is currently in his third season of Super Rugby with the Hamilton-based Chiefs. He signed a new two-year deal in March 2019 that was to run through the 2021 season. It now appears as though his stay in New Zealand will end a year early.
Though he has primarily been used as a No8 for Canada, it’s in the second row where Ardron has spent much of his time with first Ospreys and now the Chiefs. It’s at lock where Castres intends to play the 28-year-old with French international Christophe Samson also likely to hang up the boots in June.
Should the move be confirmed, Ardron will join fellow Canadians Taylor Paris and Matt Tierney in the south of France. Paris should soon sign a new contract with the club having established himself as a first choice winger under new manager and former Pumas prop Mauricio Reggiardo. Tierney is already signed through next season and has recently shifted from tighthead to loosehead prop.
While the end is fast approaching for the 39-year-old Capó Ortega, another Uruguayan is set to arrive as Teros scrumhalf Santiago Arata will move to Castres at the completion of the inaugural Súper Liga Americana de Rugby season where he is currently playing for Peñarol. Argentina’s World Cup flyhalf Benjamín Urdapilleta remains contracted through next season.
