England winger Joe Cokanasiga is set to depart Bath as the black, blue and whites look to reduce their current wage bill to accommodate new signings.
According to The Rugby Paper, London Irish are bidding to re-sign the England speedster ahead of the 2023/24 Premiership season.
The Exiles want the powerhouse to return to the club where he started his career as a replacement for Ollie Hassell-Collins, who is on the verge of agreeing a move to Leicester Tigers.
Born in Fiji, Cokanasiga moved to England ahead of his third birthday and was signed on by the London Irish Academy in 2015, making an impact in the Premiership Rugby Sevens tournament a year later.
He made his senior debut for Irish in the Championship and earned a switch to Bath in 2018. He earned his international debut in the same year, scoring against Japan, and has continued his fine scoring form for Eddie Jones’ side with 11 tries in his first 11 caps.
Bath, who’ve already confirmed the signing of Alfie Barbeary, Ted Hill and Ollie Lawrence, are now looking to add Scotland star fly-half Finn Russell.
According to the Mail Online, they are close to completing the move, which would be ‘a stunning coup for the West Country club and also the troubled Premiership as a whole, to have a new box-office asset.’
Russell had previously been linked with a move to Japan, but due to his personal life now would like to stay in Europe.
England’s squad ranked from best to worst:
What we’ve done is taken every England players ‘rating’ from each game of the Autumn Nations Series and averaged their score with powerhouse Joe Cokanasiga coming out on top.
1. Joe Cokanasiga – 7
- Argentina: 7
- Japan: 7
- New Zealand: N/A
- South Africa: N/A
2. Maro Itoje – 6.87
- Argentina: 6
- Japan: 7.5
- New Zealand: 7
- South Africa: 7
3. Guy Porter – 6.75
- Argentina: N/A
- Japan: 8.5
- New Zealand: 5
- South Africa: N/A
4. Ellis Genge – 6.37
- Argentina: 7
- Japan: 8.5
- New Zealand: 5
- South Africa: 5
5=. Sam Simmonds – 6.25
- Argentina: 5
- Japan: 8
- New Zealand: 7
- South Africa: 5
5=. Freddie Steward – 6.25
- Argentina: 6
- Japan: 9
- New Zealand: 6
- South Africa: 4
