New Zealand World Cup winner Stephen Donald will not be moving to Ulster.
SportsJOE reported earlier this month that the World Cup winner would sign for the province on a short term deal until the end of the season with incumbent fly-half Christian Leali’ifano set to return to the Brumbies for the start of the Super Rugby season.
Ulster released a statement on Monday confirming that the club had agreed a deal with Donald but that he sustained an injury while representing his club, Toshiba Brave Lupus, in the final game of the Japanese season, which will now rule him out for the next month.
The province confirmed that they would continue to monitor the market for a replacement to Leali’ifano with Peter Nelson and Johnny McPhillips set to battle for the starting job in the interim.
A move to Ulster would have represented the fifth stop of Donald’s storied career, after previous stints with Bath, Mitsubishi Dynaboars, Suntory Sungoliath and the Waikato Chiefs, where he is the club’s all-time leading points scorer.
Ulster Director of Rugby Les Kiss told the BBC earlier this month that they have a player waiting to be signed and that they need a player with experiece to help guide 22-year-old fly-half Johnny McPhillips.
“We’ve got someone there and we will make that announcement when it’s all tidied up,” said Kiss.
“Christian has done his job for us. Johnny McPhillips came out and got another chance [against Leinster] and did a good job as a young fly-half and Christian has done well in helping him along the way.
“We need someone with a bit of experience and that’s what we intend to do.”
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