Northampton Saints: Balan Signs!

Northampton Saints today announce the signing of Petru Balan, the Romanian prop forward, from French Top 14 club Biarritz Olympique. Petru is 31 and will join the club for next year’s hoped for Premiership return. His contract is subject to a medical.

Before moving to play rugby in France he played for Dinamo-Bucuresti in Romania, including playing for them in the 1998-99 European Challenge Cup. He played for FC Grenoble in the 2002-04 Challenge Cup and European Shield competitions. He moved to Biarritz for the 2003-04 season. He was a part of the team that were runners-up to Munster in the 2005-06 Heineken Cup, and won the 2005-06 Top 14.

He was a part of the Romanian team at the 2003 Rugby World Cup, playing two matches throughout the tournament held in Australia. He played in over 50 matches for his national side.

Balan is 6”1” and weighs in at 117 kg (that’s 18st 6lbs in real money), and will play at loosehead for the Saints.  Travelling supporters will remember him well as he played in all three of last season’s games against Biarritz, and he is widely regarded as one of the most combative front row players in the world.

Rumour on this site (31 references in the last month!) has linked Balan to the club for some time now, and recently concern was expressed that he had left the field against Castres with “Lumbago”. This actually translates as “backache!”