Today's rugby news as England star turns down £800k deal to replace Wales international

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These are your rugby headlines on Sunday, October 13.

England star turns down £800k to replace Welsh international

England fly-half Marcus Smith reportedly turned down an incredible £800,000 a year deal to join Bristol Bears from Harlequins this summer.

The 25-year-old was out of contract at the Stoop at the end of the season and, having lost Wales international Callum Sheedy to Cardiff ahead of the new campaign, Bristol were very keen to secure his services with a mega-money deal having made the position a priority.

Sheedy's exit has left USA international AJ MacGinty as the only specialist senior fly-half in the Bears' squad, with the Premiership club heading into the 2024/25 season with a slimmed-down squad.

Rugby Pass report that Smith was offered a three-year deal but it was not enough to tempt him to swap London for Bristol and he has since put pen to paper on a new deal with Quins until 2028.

The Bears were not the only side interested in the England star, however, with the 35-cap international also on the radar of clubs in the French Top 14 before signing his contract extension.

Star faces early retirement

France star Paul Willemse will find out in the coming days whether or not he will be forced into an early retirement,

The Montpellier lock suffered another concussion against Stade Francais last weekend and while he is under contract to the club until the end of the season, that knock may force him into hanging up his boots earlier than that.

Willemse was concussed five times last season alone and admitted ahead of the new campaign that another would see him bring down the curtain on his career.

The 31-year-old is believed to be undergoing a medical examination next week before a final decision is reached on his playing future.

South Africa-born Willemse has won 32 caps for France and represented the Lions, the Bulls and Grenoble before moving to Montpellier in June 2015.

Lam lauds players' belief after stunning comeback

By PA Sport staff

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam always believed his side could win after they producing a stunning fightback to beat Exeter 40-35 at Sandy Park.

Gabi Ibitoye scored an eight-minute try hat-trick as Bristol maintained their proud unbeaten Premiership away record stretching back to last November.

They looked dead and buried as Chiefs wingers Mani Feyi-Waboso and Paul Brown-Bampoe scored two tries apiece to put second-from-bottom Exeter 32-12 up with 18 minutes remaining and on the verge of their first win of the season. But a hugely costly yellow card for replacement hooker Dan Frost four minutes later, for stopping a tap penalty being taken quickly, saw Bristol score 28 points while he was off the pitch, running in four converted tries, with Ibitoye getting three of them.

Lam said: "I looked at the clock, it said 18 minutes left, we needed 21 points, and I said 'we can do that'. I sent that message on but the players were already talking about it. And I think we did it in eight minutes!"

"The players believe, don't they? I think the belief comes from the evidence that you put into training, you put into having belief in the game. We know we are a fit side and we're fit to play the Bears way, which is coming through strongly. I'm told it's a record for Bristol scoring four bonus-point tries consecutively but we've got a lot of belief that we can score tries."

On Ibitoye, Lam added: "He is brilliant, his work is great, he is one of the fittest guys in the league, but it's about him staying in the game and he's been doing it very, very well this year so far."

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter admitted he had gone through almost every emotion possible during the course of the contest.

He said: "We are close to being a very good team but the bit we have got to get right is probably the hardest bit in professional sport, which is holding your composure together under pressure and not just multiplying issues. We had a lot of players multiplying issues for us today.

"It is not because they don't want to win, or they don't care, but they have just got to be able to clear their heads sometimes and do the right things. It was a little bit scary watching us after we got the yellow card. We started missing tackles and we looked flustered.

"I always said, even when we were in the top four and in finals, that the biggest challenge would come when you are not winning games and are bottom of the league. This will challenge us as a club and an organisation, how we promote ourselves and stick together, and we can either embrace it or run away from it and I am pretty comfortable we will embrace it and move forward."

Exeter's next match is away to fellow winless side Newcastle Falcons on Friday night. Baxter added: "They will no doubt be rubbing their hands together saying 'put them under a bit of pressure and they will explode' but we have got to go there, free ourselves up a bit, play the right kind of game, and stick at it for longer than they do and if we do that we will win."

Scotland title defence ends in heartbreak

By PA Sport Staff

Scotland's defence of their WXV 2 title ended in heartbreak after a 31-22 defeat to Australia in a winner-takes-all showdown in Cape Town.

Both sides went into their final match at the Athlone Stadium with two wins under their belt, but Scotland ended the game with 13 players and Australia came out on top.

Australia raced into a 21 -0 lead in the first 23 minutes with tries from Desiree Miller, Maya Stewart and Cecilia Smith, all converted by fly-half Faitala Moleka.

Scotland hit back after Australia centre Siokapesi Palu was given a yellow card for a high tackle and tries from prop Leah Bartlett and full-back Chloe Rollie, the former's converted by Helen Nelson, reduced the deficit to 21-12 at the break.

The gap was cut to 21-17 early in the second period when Scotland prop Anne Young burrowed over for an unconverted try.

Scotland's momentum was then checked by centre Emma Orr's yellow card for a high tackle, later upgraded to a red, before wing Francesca McGhee's try put them 22-21 ahead with 10 minutes left.

But after McGhee was shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on, Australia regained the lead through Moleka's 74th-minute penalty and the Wallaroos sealed victory with Ashley Marsters' late converted try.