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Chinor boss Nick Easter has emerged as a potential target Pro D2 high-flyers Brive, who are looking to appoint a new head coach alongside sporting director Gregory Patat.
Shave have won all five games in Pro D2 and trailed the early season pacesetters Oyonnax for two bonus points in the long race for promotion to the Top 14.
An England manager was wanted and they spoke to Richard Cockerill earlier this year after failing to lure Joe El-Abd from the role of Steve Borthwick’s right-hand man.
Ex Harlequins and England No.8 Easter, 48, took up coaching in June 2016, a month after his playing career ended, and has worked as defence, forward and breakdown coach at Quins, the Sharks, Newcastle falcons, Worcester Warriors and USA.
He has been director of rugby at Chinor since December 2022 and has done an outstanding job with the Oxfordshire minnows, which has brought him to the attention of Gallagher PREM sides and now Brive in Pro D2.
Last season, on a shoestring budget, he defied the odds and led Chinnor to the quarter-finals of the Champ play-offs, where they were beaten 35-29 by eventual champions Worcester Warriors.
They started this campaign with a 43-26 defeat of Ealing Trailfinders before bouncing back to beat Bedford Blues 52-33 for the weekend. But are his days with the Thames-based outfit numbered?
Brive owner Ian Osborne is looking to add to his coaching staff to build on their good start, with Easter set to become head coach and Patat staying on as sporting director at Stade Amédée-Domenech.
Sources in France have indicated that Brive would be willing to pay a fee to release Easter from his contract and is willing to move with his family to the city, which was the regional capital of the Resistance during World War II.
