Rugby free agents: finding a new club after leaving a province is getting harder

'By Christmas time I knew I wasn’t getting opportunities, you feel like a tackle bag holder.'

Tom Daly playing for Connacht (left); Daniel Okeke playing for Munster (right). Photos: Sportsfile

For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. As centre Tom Daly was counting down his final days with Connacht, the uncertainty was a never-ending worry. He wanted to know if he could continue in the sport. His soon-to-be wife needed to know where she was going to live.

“There were times this year I thought I wouldn’t get a contract in rugby,” says Daly, who joined Stade Niçois in Nice last summer.