• Guinness Premiership

Sale Sharks hopeful of keeping Dwayne Peel

Dwayne Peel the target of numerous suitors © Getty Images

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Sale boss Kingsley Jones is hopeful that Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel will remain with the Guinness Premiership side next season.

Peel has been consistently linked with a move away from Edgeley Park after slipping down the pecking order for his country, with coach Warren Gatland preferring his Test players to ply their trade on home soil.

"We want to keep him here and I'd be very, very surprised if he plays for the Scarlets next season," Jones told BBC Sport Wales. "I get asked every day about Dwayne and what is his future. It's a bit sad really because I've been asked that since he got here.

"Our relationship's fantastic, it always has been. But ultimately I'm a bit fed up of it all, to be honest with you, managing one guy 15% of my time. And it's not Dwayne, it's media-driven. I think we have a very good chance of keeping him here, but he has lots of options. Dwayne could take his pick, I'm sure, at the moment."

Saracens have agreed to release former Springbok flanker Wikus van Heerden from his contract at the end of the season. Van Heerden wishes to return to South Africa with his family, insisting that in rugby terms he is happy in the Guinness Premiership.

Van Heerden won 14 caps for South Africa before joining Sarries and came off the bench in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final as the Springboks claimed the title.

"This is purely a personal decision," he said. "From a rugby point of view I have never been happier at any stage of my career. Saracens is now a fantastically well-run club with a very bright future, and I wish I was able to stay and be a part of that future. For the next five months, I am 100% focused on ensuring we finish this special season with at least one trophy."

Scotland 'A' fullback Steve Jones has quit Edinburgh after just eight months in the Magners League since leaving Newcastle.

Jones will now join Championship side Exeter Chiefs having failed to secure regular first-team rugby with Edinburgh.

"Steve is a player that I spent a lot of time tracking at the end of last season," Exeter coach Rob Baxter said. "We had a meeting at Sandy Park, but ultimately Steve decided to move from Newcastle to Edinburgh in the hope of furthering his ambitions to play for Scotland, as at the time Steve had just returned from a successful tour with Scotland 'A'."

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