Nissa Rugby have confirmed the signing of Francis Saili. At 35, the New Zealand international centre has signed for one season and will stay in Pro D2, a competition he knows well. He leaves Vannes after two seasons in Brittany.

The announcement comes less than a week after good news for Nice: on 7 August the appeals committee of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) overturned the administrative relegation handed down at the end of July, and the club will start again in Pro D2 with a two-point suspended deduction. It is in this calmer climate that Saili arrives on the Côte d’Azur, where he will link up again with prop Zinedine Aouad, a teammate at Vannes last season.

Since arriving in France in 2020, the former Blues and Munster player has played 121 matches: 48 for Biarritz, 44 for Racing 92 and 29 for Vannes, scoring 19 tries. The two-time U20 world champion, who won 2 caps for New Zealand in 2013, knows the second tier well: 37 Pro D2 matches to his name, including a full season at Biarritz in 2020-2021 (26 matches, 6 tries) that ended in promotion to the Top 14.

At Vannes, his game time shrank. A starter 14 times in the Top 14 in 2024-2025 (17 matches, 4 tries), he played only 11 Pro D2 matches last season without scoring, though he did feature in the Bretons’ big semi-final win over Oyonnax. At Nice, he joins a crowded rotation in the centres alongside Jean-Pascal Barraque, Welshman Tyler Morgan and Pablo Patilla.