Ma’a Nonu to miss Toulon’s opening two Champions Cup matches

Ma'a Nonu will miss Toulon's opening two fixtures of the Champions Cup having been de-registered by his club in order to bring in centre Theo Belan.

Toulon host Bath in their opening game this weekend before travelling to Wasps on Sunday week.

After his exploits at the Rugby World Cup with New Zealand Nonu would not have been available for the opneing two games anyway with Toulon taking the opportunity to bring Belan in.

De-registered players may be re-registered during the group stages however, meaning the All-Black could line out against Leinster on December 13th.

Five teams in total have taken the opportunity to bring in new players. Among them are Toulon’s opponents this Sunday – Bath.

They have de-registered Sam Burgess after his return to Australian Rugby League, replacing him with back row David Denton.

Meanwhile Glasgow Warriors have replaced Kevin Bryce with Shalva Mamukashvili in their 41-man squad, Leicester Tigers have brought in Matias Aguero in place of Logovi’i Mulipola and Stade Francais have Adrien Oleon to their squad, in place of Remi Bonfils.

Each club may select two additional players during the course of the pool stages, one of whom must be a front row player. De-registered players can come back into the squad, in place of their original replacement, once the paperwork has gone through before 12.0 on the Tuesday before the round of games.