Don’t Expect To See Ben Barba In A Toulon Jersey Anytime Soon
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Ben Barba’s Toulon debut may have to wait.
The disgraced rugby league star recently signed a two and a half year deal with Toulon, and was expected to play a role of the French giants this season.
Barba controversially announced that he was code-hopping last month, after being banned for cocaine use by the NRL. The Australian made the switch to union, in a bid to get back playing rugby straight away, and avoid any sporting ban.
Toulon assistant coach Stephen Meehan however, has now revealed Barba could be forced to wait until the 2017-18 Top 14 season begins in August to make his debut.
Unless there was major injury problems throughout the club, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Meehan told Fox Sports.
“Frankly, I imagine it’s going to be slow. For the first six months, for him it would just be a question of getting your head down and working on everything as hard as you can, get to know everything, study the game.
“Honestly, if all these guys are available, I can’t see him getting a lot of game time this year.”
